Project

Understanding the mechanisms driving the ongoing (co)evolution of the Web of Life is a major challenge, especially at a time when human activity is rapidly altering biodiversity worldwide. However, limitations inherent in mainstream approaches often prevent a full understanding of (co)evolutionary consequences beyond short-term, local dynamics of pairwise interactions between antagonistic or mutualistic species. I propose to overcome these gaps by integrating, within a unified research framework, five major conceptual shifts: (1) from pairwise interactions to interaction webs; (2) from the species level to the individual level; (3) from single interaction types to mixtures of interaction modes; (4) from static to dynamic networks; and (5) from local dynamics to the geographic mosaic of (co)evolution. To achieve this, I will combine digital (co)evolution, macroevolutionary assembly processes, and eco-evolutionary approaches with database analysis, stochastic modeling, (co)phylogenetic methods, and network theory. My aim is to shift the focus of evolutionary biology from reconstructing past histories to predicting future processes. Ultimately, I seek to understand what is, what may become, and what is not predictable in the (co)evolution of the Web of Life. If successful, this research may have implications for phage therapy, synthetic ecology, and microbiome science.