The value of biodiversity is widely appreciated, but we are only beginning to understand the interplay of processes that generate biodiversity and their consequences for coevolutionary interactions. Whereas predator–prey coevolution is most often analyzed in the context of evolutionary arms races, much less has been written about how predators are affected by, and respond to, evolutionary diversification in their prey. We hypothesize here that adaptive radiation of prey may lead to diversification and potentially speciation in predators, a process that we call an upwards adaptive radiation cascade. In this paper we lay out the conceptual basis for upwards adaptive radiation cascades, explore evidence for such cascades, and finally advocate for intensified research.

生物多样性的价值已广为人知，但我们才刚刚开始理解产生生物多样性的过程之间的相互作用及其对协同进化相互作用的影响。捕食者与猎物的协同进化最常在进化军备竞赛的背景下进行分析，而关于捕食者如何受其猎物的进化多样性影响和作出反应的报道则少得多。我们在此假设，猎物的适应性辐射可能导致捕食者多样化并可能形成物种，我们称此过程为向上适应性辐射级联。在本文中，我们为向上适应性辐射级联奠定了概念基础，探索了这种级联的证据，最后主张加强研究。