Historically, many biologists assumed that evolution and ecology acted independently because evolution occurred over distances too great to influence most ecological patterns. Today, evidence indicates that evolution can operate over a range of spatial scales, including fine spatial scales. Thus, evolutionary divergence across space might frequently interact with the mechanisms that also determine spatial ecological patterns. Here, we synthesize insights from 500 eco-evolutionary studies and develop a predictive framework that seeks to understand whether and when evolution amplifies, dampens, or creates ecological patterns. We demonstrate that local adaptation can alter everything from spatial variation in population abundances to ecosystem properties. We uncover 14 mechanisms that can mediate the outcome of evolution on spatial ecological patterns. Sometimes, evolution amplifies environmental variation, especially when selection enhances resource uptake or patch selection. The local evolution of foundation or keystone species can create ecological patterns where none existed originally. However, most often, we find that evolution dampens existing environmental gradients, because local adaptation evens out fitness across environments and thus counteracts the variation in associated ecological patterns. Consequently, evolution generally smooths out the underlying heterogeneity in nature, making the world appear less ragged than it would be in the absence of evolution. We end by highlighting the future research needed to inform a fully integrated and predictive biology that accounts for eco-evolutionary interactions in both space and time.

从历史上看，许多生物学家认为进化和生态学是独立发挥作用的，因为进化发生的距离太远，无法影响大多数生态模式。今天，有证据表明，进化可以在一系列空间尺度上进行，包括精细的空间尺度。因此，跨空间的进化差异可能经常与决定空间生态格局的机制相互作用。在这里，我们综合了500项生态进化研究的见解，并建立了一个预测框架，力求了解进化是否以及何时放大，减弱或创造了生态模式。我们证明了局部适应可以改变一切，从人口数量的空间变化到生态系统特性。我们发现14种机制可以介导空间生态格局演变的结果。有时，进化会加剧环境变化，特别是在选择会增加资源吸收或补丁选择时。基础或基石物种的局部进化可以创建最初不存在的生态格局。但是，最常见的是，我们发现进化会减弱现有的环境梯度，因为局部适应会平衡整个环境的适应性，从而抵消相关生态模式的变化。因此，进化通常会消除自然界中潜在的异质性，使世界看起来比没有进化的情况下衣衫less。