Evolutionary outcomes arising from bistability in ecosystem dynamics

While it is known that shallow lakes ecosystems may experience abrupt shifts (ie tippingpoints) from one state to a contrasting degraded alternative state as a result of gradual envi-ronmental changes, the role of evolutionary processes and the impact of trait variation in thiscontext remain largely unexplored. It is crucial to elucidate how eco-evolutionary feedbacksaffect abrupt ecological transitions in shallow lakes. These feedbacks can significantly alterthe dynamics of aquatic plants competition, community structure, and species diversity, po-tentially affecting the existence of alternative states or either delay or expedite the thresholdsat which these ecological shifts occur. In this paper, we explore the eco-evolutionary dyna-mics of submerged and floating macrophytes in a shallow lake ecosystem under asymmetriccompetition for nutrients and light. We use adaptive dynamics and a structured populationmodel to analyze the evolution of the growth depth of the submerged and floating macro-phytes population, which influences their competitive ability for the two resources. We showhow rapid trait evolution can result in complex dynamics including evolutionary oscillations,extensive diversification and evolutionary suicide. Furthermore, we find that the co-evolutionof the two competitive species can play a stabilizing role, while not significantly affectingthe overall evolutionary dynamics. Overall, this study shows that evolution can have strongeffects in the ecological dynamics of bistable ecosystems.