Data from: The effect of immigration on the adaptation of microbial communities to warming

Theory predicts that immigration can either enhance or impair the rate at
which species and whole communities adapt to environmental change,
depending on the traits of genotypes and species in the source pool
relative to local conditions. These responses in turn will determine how
well whole communities function in changing environments. We tested the
effects of immigration and experimental warming on microbial communities
during an 81 day field experiment. The effects of immigration depended on
the warming treatment. In warmed communities immigration was detrimental
to community growth whereas in ambient communities it was beneficial. This
result is explained if colonists came from a local species pool
pre-adapted to ambient conditions. Loss of metabolic diversity, however,
was buffered by immigration in both environments. Communities showed
increasing local adaptation to temperature conditions during the
experiment and this was independent of whether or not they received
immigration. Genotypes that comprised the communities were not locally
adapted, however, indicating that community local adaptation can be
independent of adaptation of component genotypes. Our results are
consistent with a greater role for species interactions rather than
adaptation of constituent species in determining local adaptation of whole
communities, and confirm that immigration can either enhance or impair
community responses to environmental change depending on the environmental
context.