  Here, we address the essential question of whether, in the context of
evolving populations, ecosystems attain properties that enable persistence of
the ecosystem itself. We use a simple ecosystem model describing resource,
producer, and consumer dynamics to analyze how evolution affects dynamical
stability properties of the ecosystem. In particular, we compare resilience of
the entire system after allowing the producer and consumer populations to
evolve to their evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS), to the maximum attainable
resilience. We find a substantial reduction in ecosystem resilience when
producers and consumers are allowed to evolve compared to the maximal
attainable resilience. This study illustrates the inherent difference and
possible conflict between maximizing individual-level fitness and maximizing
resilience of entire ecosystems.
