Unprecedented environmental changes as well as the spread of invasive species induce strong selection pressures on native species. Studies have shown both ecological and rapid evolutionary responses of species to these changing selection pressures. Increasing evidence that ecological and evolutionary processes can occur at similar temporal and spatial scales and might thus frequently interact has raised the concern that these processes should not be studied in isolation from each other, but instead should be integrated if we attempt to better understand species responses. Even more, because species are embedded within communities, novel selection pressures induced by environmental change and species invasion does not act on single species, but acts simultaneously on all species within the community, giving rise to potentially complex eco-evolutionary dynamics in communities. How such eco-evolutionary feedbacks play out in communities is still understudied. Here, I show how experimental evolution is a useful research tool to test eco-evolutionary hypotheses of multiple species co-evolving within a community. I then provide several examples of how experimental evolution can be used to study eco-evolutionary dynamics within multi-species communities, and outline suggestions for future experiments tackling species invasion.
