Gijsbert Werner

Research interests

My main research interest is the evolution of cooperation, specifically mutualistic cooperation between multiple different species. As it is typically beneficial for individuals to reap the benefits of mutualistic cooperation without paying its costs, many mutualisms are vulnerable to cheating and defection. However, we see plenty of examples of stable multi-species cooperation in nature.

I am highly interested in the context that maintains the stability of such mutualisms over longer time periods, particularly in changing environments. Environmental change could pose a challenge to the stability of mutualisms and of biological markets as it can shift the relative benefits and costs of cooperation, causing formerly mutualistic interactions to become more parasitic in nature. 

Previously, I obtained my undergraduate degree in Biology from Utrecht University, and a master’s degree at the Department of Zoology in Oxford. After that, I moved back to the Netherlands to pursue my PhD on with Toby Kiers at the Institute of Ecological Science here in Amsterdam.

Research project

Evolutionary Consequences of Context: Mutualisms in a Changing World

I am working on the sybiosis between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Plants and AMF exchange resources on what can be characterised as a biological market. Recently, this lab has established that reciprocal rewarding of cooperative behaviour is instrumental in stabilising the mutualism. 

I am now looking at the effects that changing environments, particulary changes in resource availability, have on cooperation between AMF and plants. Theoretically, one can predict that the benefits of resource trade between AMF and plants change with the abundance of various resources, and that over longer time mutualistic phenotypes shift as a result. I am now using experimental evolution to test such predictions. More in general I am interested in other environmental factors that could change the degree of cooperativity of both partners in this mutualism, and plan on exploring such factors in the future.

I am also interested in the effect of reciprocal rewarding of cooperative behaviour on the competition between AMF. We know very little as to what extent plants are actually able to favour cooperative AMF strains in an ecological context. Experimentally, I am studying the competition beteween AMF in relation to their cooperativity and plant rewards.

Participants:
Toby Kiers, Daniel Engelmoer, Erik Verbruggen, Oscar Franken.