A macroevolutionary expansion of the modern synthesis and the importance of extrinsic abiotic factors

Abstract

This contribution examines the Modern Synthesis in the light of its historical underpinnings, attempts at expansion and treatment of macroevolutionary theory. Particular emphasis is given to the need to better understand the patterns and processes operating on species and higher-level biological entities within a hierarchical framework, as they are often not congruent with lower-level processes. We then focus on the oft-overlooked importance of extrinsic abiotic drivers (e.g. tectonic change, sea-level and climatic fluctuations, as well as factors resulting in mass extinctions) in directing evolution. We propose that the fundamental niche is a species-level property useful in testing for the effects of extrinsic abiotic drivers on macroevolutionary patterns and potential instances of species-level selection. Integration of a diverse array of fields requires both the addition of new information and a standardized theoretical framework for understanding how the effects of change at one level reverberate to other levels. These are some of the remaining ingredients necessary for building a truly synthetic theory of evolution.

Impacts of Niche Breadth and Dispersal Ability on Macroevolutionary Patterns

“…The effect on diversification was positive, with higher numbers of speciation events occurring with more rapid climate change. These results are congruent with patterns observed over geologic history, where these traits have structured macroevolution; for example, elevated turnover rates are observed during periods of more rapid environmental change (Eldredge and Gould 1972;Vrba and Eldredge 1984;Barnosky and Kraatz 2007;Erwin 2009;Myers and Saupe 2013).…”

“…How these changes have influenced macroevolutionary trajectories in the context of specific macroecological traits remains a long-standing question in evolutionary biology (Vrba 1985;Allmon and Ross 1990;Diniz-Filho and Tôrres 2002;Eldredge 2003;Rothschild and Lister 2003;Lieberman 2005;Colwell and Rangel 2010;Eastman and Storfer 2011;Myers and Saupe 2013;Svenning et al 2015).…”

“…Previous investigations have focused on the roles of geographic range size (Gaston 2003;Harris and Pimm 2008;Jablonski 2008;Harnik 2011), dispersal ability ( Jablonski 1986;Lieberman et al 1993;Kisel and Barraclough 2010;Salisbury et al 2012), and environmental tolerance (Allmon and Ross 1990;Colwell and Rangel 2010;Myers and Saupe 2013), among others, in influencing patterns of speciation and extinction.…”

EcoClimate: a database of climate data from multiple models for past, present, and future for macroecologists and biogeographers

“…Quantifying and mapping historical climate signatures in relation to spatial (Araújo et al, 2008) and temporal (Lyons and Wagner, 2009) biodiversity patterns, for example, is a general issue in macroecology to which ecoClimate data have much to offer. In the "new" paleobiology, a research field integrating paleontologists and evolutionary theorists, paleoclimatic simulations have provided opportunities for testing climatic controls on macroevolutionary patterns (Eronen et al, 2009;Myers and Saupe, 2013). Similarly, community phylogenetics has recently seen important advances by drawing information from climate models to understand community assembly on geographic scales (Hawkins et al, 2014).…”

Getting somewhere with the Red Queen: chasing a biologically modern definition of the hypothesis

“…Evidence from a variety of sources [45][46][47][48][49][50][51] uphold abiotic factors as important drivers of evolution and speciation. This has led to proposed alternatives to the RQH which focus on the physical environment as the main driver of evolution.…”