Most microorganisms remain uncultivated, and typically their ecological roles must be inferred from diversity and genomic studies.
An increasing number of studies have documented evolutionary changes in invasive populations, typically over ecological timescales (Lee 2002; Prentis et al. 2008; Whitney and Gabler 2008).
In the rare cases when evaluations do take place, they typically focus on ecological indicators and ignore other relevant objectives such as socioeconomics and governance.
Because the exact locations are not disclosed as latitudes and longitudes, which is typically provided for ecological studies of this type, it is not possible to verify that colonies were indeed kept distant enough from other pesticide-treated agricultural crops.
However, the usefulness of the new methodology for inferring biodiversity patterns from non-microbial community samples which were collected using a standardized protocol as it is typically applied in ecological and conservation surveys and monitoring programs (e.g. [37], [49]), has rarely been tested to date (e.g. [6], [19], [20]).
Yet the research and approaches to solutions are typically focused on ecological concepts rather than human attitudes.
Our observational data indicate that P. leptocoma and P. reflexa typically occupy distinct ecological niches, with lower levels of co-occurrence than expected by chance.
Clades will typically retain their ecological characteristics, at least over moderate periods of evolutionary time [ 1, 2], and where inherited climatic tolerances are narrow, this will limit species' geographic range expansion.
This study, which builds on the concepts of the geographic mosaic of coevolution (Thompson 2005) and of eco-evolutionary dynamics (Fussmann et al. 2007), highlights the important role of evolution in predator prey interactions – a process that is typically viewed as ecological.
