Fig. 1. Effects of community context on focal bacterial and phage ecology and evolution.

Bacterial community context (left) may affect the ecology and evolution of interacting phage and bacteria populations in various ways (dotted lines). Ecological effects include direct effects on the density of the focal bacterial and phage populations, as well as higher-order effects that alter the interaction between the focal bacteria and phage populations. Evolutionary effects can include: changes to (co)evolutionary dynamics, like fluctuating selection dynamics (depicted); mechanisms of evolution, like which receptor mutation bacteria acquire to evolve phage resistance (depicted); and pleiotropic consequences, like those involved in a trade-off between two traits (depicted). Moreover, ecological and evolutionary effects of community context may affect each other through eco-evolutionary feedbacks. Filled arrows denote abstract interactions, while unfilled arrows denote changes through time.