Niche construction

F. John Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, Marcus W. Feldman

484 pages, parution le 03/09/2003

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Résumé

The seemingly innocent observation that the activities of organisms bring about changes in environments is so obvious that it seems an unlikely focus for a new line of thinking about evolution. Yet niche construction--as this process of organism-driven environmental modification is known--has hidden complexities. By transforming biotic and abiotic sources of natural selection in external environments, niche construction generates feedback in evolution on a scale hitherto underestimated--and in a manner that transforms the evolutionary dynamic. It also plays a critical role in ecology, supporting ecosystem engineering and influencing the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Despite this, niche construction has been given short shrift in theoretical biology, in part because it cannot be fully understood within the framework of standard evolutionary theory.

Wedding evolution and ecology, this book extends evolutionary theory by formally including niche construction and ecological inheritance as additional evolutionary processes. The authors support their historic move with empirical data, theoretical population genetics, and conceptual models. They also describe new research methods capable of testing the theory. They demonstrate how their theory can resolve long-standing problems in ecology, particularly by advancing the sorely needed synthesis of ecology and evolution, and how it offers an evolutionary basis for the human sciences.

Already hailed as a pioneering work by some of the world's most influential biologists, this is a rare, potentially field-changing contribution to the biological sciences.

Introduction
The Evidence for Niche Construction
A Theoretical Investigation of the Evolutionary Consequences of Niche Construction
General Qualitative Characteristics of Niche Construction
Niche Construction and Ecology
Human Niche Construction, Learning, and Cultural Processes
Testing Niche Construction 1: Empirical Methods and Predictions for Evolutionary Biology
Testing Niche Construction 2: Empirical Methods, Theory, and Predictions for Ecology
Testing Niche Construction 3: Empirical Methods and Predictions for the Human Sciences
Extended Evolutionary Theory

Appendices
Glossary of new terms
Bibliography
Index

L'auteur - F. John Odling-Smee

F. John Odling-Smee is a Lecturer in Oxford University's Institute of Biological Anthropology.

L'auteur - Kevin N. Laland

Kevin N. Laland is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader in Biology at the University of St. Andrews.

L'auteur - Marcus W. Feldman

Marcus W. Feldman is Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Princeton University Press
Auteur(s)	F. John Odling-Smee, Kevin N. Laland, Marcus W. Feldman
Parution	03/09/2003
Nb. de pages	484
Format	13,5 x 21,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	565g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780691044378
ISBN13	978-0-691-04437-8