Data from: The eco-evolutionary responses of a generalist consumer to resource competition

This article explores the combined evolutionary and ecological responses
of resource uptake abilities in a generalist consumer to exploitative
competition for one resource using a simple 2-resource model. It compares
the sizes of ecologically and evolutionarily caused changes in population
densities in cases where the original consumer has a strong or a weak
trade-off in its abilities to consume the two resources. The analysis also
compares the responses of the original species to competition when the
competitor’s population size is or is not limited by the shared resource.
While divergence in resource use traits in the resident generalist
consumer is expected under all scenarios when resources are substitutable,
the changes in population densities of the resources and resident consumer
frequently differ between scenarios. The population of the original
consumer often decreases as a result of its own adaptive divergence, and
this decrease is often much greater than the initial ecological decrease.
If the evolving consumer has a strong trade-off, the overlapped resource
increases in equilibrium population density in response to being consumed
by a generalist competitor. Some of these predictions differ qualitatively
in alternative scenarios involving sustained variation in population
densities or nutritionally essential resources.