Environmental Internship Program - 2022 Booklet

BIODIVERSITY AND
CONSERVATION
PROJECT TITLE
Evolution and Species
Diversity Maintenance of
Orchard Flies
ORGANIZATION(S)
Levine Lab,
Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology,
Princeton University
LOCATION(S)
Princeton, New Jersey
MENTOR(S)
Jonathan Levine,
Professor of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology
Jahir Morris ’24
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
I studied North American fruit flies and
the extent to which the rapid evolution
of competitive ability can facilitate their
coexistence. Ecological theory supports the
prediction that rapid evolutionary changes
amongst populations of competing species will
stabilize their competitive interactions, thus
allowing for their coexistence. However, there
have been a limited number of studies that
systematically test this conclusion to prove
its prevalence in natural systems. The three
focal species of our research were Drosophila
melanogaster, Drosophila hydei, and Zaprionus
indianus. Our first experiment assessed the
potential for the evolution of competitive ability
to impact coexistence. We placed fly populations
with varied adaptive potentials in competition
with one another over several generations. The
second experiment measured the mechanism by
which evolution affects competitive interactions
by placing a single pair of species in competition
over several generations, but with populations
of varied relative abundance. We also routinely
captured and identified samples of flies from a
local orchard to examine how the evolution of
competitive ability impacts coexistence amongst
more diverse fly communities in nature. I’ve
gained invaluable experience in designing
experimental research and an understanding
of how ecological processes and evolutionary
mechanisms cofunction to sustain diverse
communities of organisms.
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* This internship is connected to the HMEI
Biodiversity Grand Challenges project, “The
Maintenance of Species Diversity through the Rapid
Evolution of Competitive Ability.”