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Niche Construction (niche + construction)
Selected AbstractsPERSPECTIVE: SEVEN REASONS (NOT) TO NEGLECT NICHE CONSTRUCTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 9 2006Kevin N. Laland Abstract ,The niche-construction perspective within evolutionary biology places emphasis on the changes that organisms bring about in their selective environments. Advocates of this viewpoint argue that there is both accuracy and utility in treating niche construction as an evolutionary process in its own right, rather than merely as a product of evolution. Here we discuss and assess seven putative weaknesses of the niche-construction perspective. Niche construction has been neglected or rejected on the grounds that (1) it is not prevalent, (2) its study is not tractable, (3) it is not a process, (4) it is caused by natural selection, (5) it does not change our understanding of evolution in any fundamental way, (6) it does not bring about adaptation, and (7) it is not a single phenomenon. In each case, we critically evaluate the theoretical standing of these arguments and consider the empirical evidence that can be brought to bear on the debate. We conclude that none of these are strong criticisms of the niche-construction perspective and maintain that there are compelling reasons for treating niche construction as a major evolutionary process. [source] A new synthesis: Resituating approaches to the evolution of human behaviourANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 3 2009Agustín Fuentes Most anthropologists would agree that humans are simultaneously historical, biological, behavioral, and social. However, many researchers retain a relatively dualistic paradigm dividing anthropological questions into biological and/or social aspects. Many practitioners of Neo-Darwinian perspectives prioritize natural selection in all explanations of human evolution. Many other anthropologists refuse to acknowledge a significant role for biological features and biological histories in human action, sensation, and engagement. Both perspectives are misplaced. Incorporating emerging perspectives in evolutionary theory into the broader anthropological discourse may help discard simplistic dualisms and resituate our assessments of the evolution of human behavior. In this essay I review three major emergent themes in evolutionary theory; Multi-Inheritance Systems Theory, Developmental Systems Theory, and Niche Construction. I suggest, with one brief example, that placing these elements in transaction with other perspectives in anthropology might enhance the possibilities of assessing human evolution and behavior. [source] Ecological and evolutionary consequences of niche construction for its agentECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 10 2008Grigoris Kylafis Abstract Niche construction can generate ecological and evolutionary feedbacks that have been underinvestigated so far. We present an eco-evolutionary model that incorporates the process of niche construction to reveal its effects on the ecology and evolution of the niche-constructing agent. We consider a simple plant,soil nutrient ecosystem in which plants have the ability to increase the input of inorganic nutrient as an example of positive niche construction. On an ecological time scale, the model shows that niche construction allows the persistence of plants under infertile soil conditions that would otherwise lead to their extinction. This expansion of plants' niche, however, requires a high enough rate of niche construction and a high enough initial plant biomass to fuel the positive ecological feedback between plants and their soil environment. On an evolutionary time scale, we consider that the rates of niche construction and nutrient uptake coevolve in plants while a trade-off constrains their values. Different evolutionary outcomes are possible depending on the shape of the trade-off. We show that niche construction results in an evolutionary feedback between plants and their soil environment such that plants partially regulate soil nutrient content. The direct benefit accruing to plants, however, plays a crucial role in the evolutionary advantage of niche construction. [source] PERSPECTIVE: SEVEN REASONS (NOT) TO NEGLECT NICHE CONSTRUCTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 9 2006Kevin N. Laland Abstract ,The niche-construction perspective within evolutionary biology places emphasis on the changes that organisms bring about in their selective environments. Advocates of this viewpoint argue that there is both accuracy and utility in treating niche construction as an evolutionary process in its own right, rather than merely as a product of evolution. Here we discuss and assess seven putative weaknesses of the niche-construction perspective. Niche construction has been neglected or rejected on the grounds that (1) it is not prevalent, (2) its study is not tractable, (3) it is not a process, (4) it is caused by natural selection, (5) it does not change our understanding of evolution in any fundamental way, (6) it does not bring about adaptation, and (7) it is not a single phenomenon. In each case, we critically evaluate the theoretical standing of these arguments and consider the empirical evidence that can be brought to bear on the debate. We conclude that none of these are strong criticisms of the niche-construction perspective and maintain that there are compelling reasons for treating niche construction as a major evolutionary process. [source] Ecological and evolutionary consequences of niche construction for its agentECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 10 2008Grigoris Kylafis Abstract Niche construction can generate ecological and evolutionary feedbacks that have been underinvestigated so far. We present an eco-evolutionary model that incorporates the process of niche construction to reveal its effects on the ecology and evolution of the niche-constructing agent. We consider a simple plant,soil nutrient ecosystem in which plants have the ability to increase the input of inorganic nutrient as an example of positive niche construction. On an ecological time scale, the model shows that niche construction allows the persistence of plants under infertile soil conditions that would otherwise lead to their extinction. This expansion of plants' niche, however, requires a high enough rate of niche construction and a high enough initial plant biomass to fuel the positive ecological feedback between plants and their soil environment. On an evolutionary time scale, we consider that the rates of niche construction and nutrient uptake coevolve in plants while a trade-off constrains their values. Different evolutionary outcomes are possible depending on the shape of the trade-off. We show that niche construction results in an evolutionary feedback between plants and their soil environment such that plants partially regulate soil nutrient content. The direct benefit accruing to plants, however, plays a crucial role in the evolutionary advantage of niche construction. [source] PERSPECTIVE: SEVEN REASONS (NOT) TO NEGLECT NICHE CONSTRUCTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 9 2006Kevin N. Laland Abstract ,The niche-construction perspective within evolutionary biology places emphasis on the changes that organisms bring about in their selective environments. Advocates of this viewpoint argue that there is both accuracy and utility in treating niche construction as an evolutionary process in its own right, rather than merely as a product of evolution. Here we discuss and assess seven putative weaknesses of the niche-construction perspective. Niche construction has been neglected or rejected on the grounds that (1) it is not prevalent, (2) its study is not tractable, (3) it is not a process, (4) it is caused by natural selection, (5) it does not change our understanding of evolution in any fundamental way, (6) it does not bring about adaptation, and (7) it is not a single phenomenon. In each case, we critically evaluate the theoretical standing of these arguments and consider the empirical evidence that can be brought to bear on the debate. We conclude that none of these are strong criticisms of the niche-construction perspective and maintain that there are compelling reasons for treating niche construction as a major evolutionary process. [source] EVOLUTION O ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE BY HUMAN AND BACTERIAL NECHE CONSTRUCTIONEVOLUTION, Issue 3 2005Maciej F. Boni Abstract Antibiotic treatment by humans generates strong viability selection for antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. The frequency of host antibiotic use often determines the strength of this selection, and changing patterns of antibiotic use can generate many types of behaviors in the population dynamics of resistant and sensitive bacterial populations. In this paper, we present a simple model of hosts dimorphic for their tendency to use/avoid antibiotics and bacterial pathogens dimorphic in their resistance/sensitivity to antibiotic treatment. When a constant fraction of hosts uses antibiotics, the two bacterial strain populations can coexist unless host use-frequency is above a critical value; this critical value is derived as the ratio of the fitness cost of resistance to the fitness cost of undergoing treatment. When strain frequencies can affect host behavior, the dynamics may be analyzed in the light of niche construction. We consider three models underlying changing host behavior: conformism, the avoidance of long infections, and adherence to the advice of public health officials. In the latter two, we find that the pathogen can have quite a strong effect on host behavior. In particular, if antibiotic use is discouraged when resistance levels are high, we observe a classic niche-construction phenomenon of maintaining strain polymorphism even in parameter regions where it would not be expected. [source] Plants intertwine fluvial landform dynamics with ecological succession and natural selection: a niche construction perspective for riparian systemsGLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Dov Corenblit ABSTRACT Aim To contribute to the development of a macroevolutionary framework for riparian systems, reinforcing conceptual linkages between earth surface processes and biological and ecological processes. Location Riparian systems. Methods Literature review leading to an original proposition for perceiving the functioning of riparian systems in a new and different way. Results Riparian systems provide diverse landforms, habitats and resources for animals and plants. Certain organisms, defined as ,ecosystem engineers', significantly create and modify the physical components of riparian systems. Many studies have highlighted such engineering effects by animals on riparian systems, but the identification and understanding of the effects and responses of plants within fluvial corridors have emerged only recently. The modulation of matter, resources and energy flows by engineering plants helps establish characteristic sequences of fluvial landform creation and maintenance associated with synergetic ecological successions. We relate this process to the concept of niche construction, developed mainly by evolutionary biologists. Feedbacks between adaptive responses of riparian plants to flow regime and adjusting effects on biostabilization and bioconstruction are discussed in the context of niche construction at the scale of ecological succession and the evolution of organisms. Main conclusions Our conceptualization forges an integrated approach for understanding vegetated fluvial systems from a macroevolutionary perspective, for elucidating riparian ecosystem dynamics and potentially for establishing long-term stream conservation and restoration strategies. [source] Us, Them and It: Modules, Genes, Environments and EvolutionMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 3 2008FIONA COWIE However, it suffers from two major theoretical flaws. First, Carruthers' concept of a module is weak, so much so that it robs his thesis of massive modularity of any real substance. Second, his conception of how the mind's modules evolved ignores the role of niche construction and cultural evolution to its detriment. [source] Resolving the Anti-Antievolutionism Dilemma: A Brief for Relational Evolutionary Thinking in AnthropologyAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2009Emily Schultz ABSTRACT Anthropologists often disagree about whether, or in what ways, anthropology is "evolutionary." Anthropologists defending accounts of primate or human biological development and evolution that conflict with mainstream "neo-Darwinian" thinking have sometimes been called "creationists" or have been accused of being "antiscience." As a result, many cultural anthropologists struggle with an "anti-antievolutionism" dilemma: they are more comfortable opposing the critics of evolutionary biology, broadly conceived, than they are defending mainstream evolutionary views with which they disagree. Evolutionary theory, however, comes in many forms. Relational evolutionary approaches such as Developmental Systems Theory, niche construction, and autopoiesis,natural drift augment mainstream evolutionary thinking in ways that should prove attractive to many anthropologists who wish to affirm evolution but are dissatisfied with current "neo-Darwinian" hegemony. Relational evolutionary thinking moves evolutionary discussion away from reductionism and sterile nature,nurture debates and promises to enable fresh approaches to a range of problems across the subfields of anthropology. [Keywords: evolutionary anthropology, Developmental Systems Theory, niche construction, autopoeisis, natural drift] [source] Behavioural environments and niche construction: the evolution of dim-light foraging in beesBIOLOGICAL REVIEWS, Issue 1 2009William T. Wcislo Abstract Most bees forage for floral resources during the day, but temporal patterns of foraging activity vary extensively, and foraging in dim-light environments has evolved repeatedly. Facultative dim-light foraging behaviour is known in five of nine families of bees, while obligate behaviour is known in four families and evolved independently at least 19 times. The light intensity under which bees forage varies by a factor of 108, and therefore the evolution of dim-light foraging represents the invasion of a new, extreme niche. The repeated evolution of dim-light foraging behaviour in bees allows tests of the hypothesis that behaviour acts as an evolutionary pacemaker. With the exception of one species of Apis, facultative dim-light foragers show no external structural traits that are thought to enable visually mediated flight behaviour in low-light environments. By contrast, most obligate dim-light foragers show a suite of convergent optical traits such as enlarged ocelli and compound eyes. In one intensively studied species (Megalopta genalis) these optical changes are associated with neurobiological changes to enhance photon capture. The available ecological evidence suggests that an escape from competition for pollen and nectar resources and avoidance of natural enemies are driving factors in the evolution of obligate dim-light foraging. [source] | |||||||||||||