Rapid evolution promotes fluctuation‐dependent species coexistence

Recent studies have demonstrated that rapid contemporary evolution can play a significant role in regulating population dynamics on ecological timescales. Here we identify a previously unrecognised mode by which rapid evolution can promote species coexistence via temporal fluctuations and a trade‐off between competitive ability and the speed of adaptive evolution. We show that this interaction between rapid evolution and temporal fluctuations not only increases the range of coexistence conditions under a gleaner‐opportunist trade‐off (i.e. low minimum resource requirement [R*] vs. high maximum growth rate) but also yields stable coexistence in the absence of a classical gleaner‐opportunist trade‐off. Given the propensity for both oscillatory dynamics and different rates of adaptation between species (including rapid evolution and phenotypic plasticity) in the real world, we argue that this expansion of fluctuation‐dependent coexistence theory provides an important overlooked solution to the so‐called ‘paradox of the plankton’. Recent studies have demonstrated that rapid contemporary evolution can play a significant role in regulating population dynamics on ecological timescales. Here we identify a previously unrecognised mode by which rapid evolution promotes species coexistence via temporal fluctuations and a trade‐off between competitive ability at equilibrium and the speed of adaptive evolution. This is a special case of relative nonlinearity in coexistence theory, and given the propensity for both oscillatory dynamics and different rates of adaptation between species in the real world, we propose that this may operate widely in nature.