Under niche construction: an operational bridge between ecology, evolution, and ecosystem science

Abstract

Abstract. All living organisms modify their biotic and abiotic environment. Niche construction theory posits that organism-mediated modifications to the environment can change selection pressures and influence the evolutionary trajectories of natural populations. While there is broad support for this proposition in general, there is considerable uncertainty about how niche construction is related to other similar concepts in ecology and evolution. Comparative studies dealing with certain aspects of niche construction are increasingly common, but there is a troubling lack of experimental tests of the core concepts of niche construction theory. Here, we propose an operational framework to evaluate comparative and experimental evidence of the evolutionary consequences of niche construction, and suggest how such research can improve our understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in ecosystems. We advocate for a shift toward explicit experimental tests of how organismmediated environmental change can influence the selection pressures underlying evolutionary responses, as well as targeted field-based comparative research to identify the mode of evolution by niche construction and assess its importance in natural populations.

Ecology in an anthropogenic biosphere

“…Niche construction theory challenges one of the most basic assumptions underlying modern evolutionary theory, that organisms must adapt solely within environmental conditions that they cannot alter, and replaces this with a ''two-way street'' (Ellison 2004) in which organisms alter environments and must in turn adapt to these altered environments, generating complex feedbacks in both ecological and evolutionary processes. The theory has strong empirical and mathematical support (Laland et al 1999, Odling-Smee et al 2003c, applies broadly across taxa, and is increasingly well connected with existing theory in ecology and evolution (OdlingSmee et al 2003b, Erwin 2008, Matthews et al 2014, Scott-Phillips et al 2014.…”

“…Many species transform their physical environments by processes of ''ecosystem engineering'' (Jones et al 1994, Wright and Jones 2006, Erwin 2008, Matthews et al 2014). Yet the evolutionary consequences of this transformation have only recently been ERLE C. ELLIS 290 incorporated into ecological theory (Lewontin 1983, Odling-Smee 1988, Matthews et al 2014.…”

“…Yet the evolutionary consequences of this transformation have only recently been ERLE C. ELLIS 290 incorporated into ecological theory (Lewontin 1983, Odling-Smee 1988, Matthews et al 2014. Niche construction theory, introduced in the 1990s, links environmental alterations by organisms to changes in their adaptive fitness, and that of their progeny, and also that of other species within these altered environments (Odling-Smee et al 1996, 2003c, Laland et al 1999.…”

A natural adaptive syndrome as a model for the origins of cereal agriculture

“…This limited view suffers from three fundamental problems. The first problem relates to a general definition of NCT, where two criteria were suggested [77,78]: -Humans must significantly modify environmental conditions. -Human-mediated environmental modifications must influence selection pressures on a recipient of niche construction (in our case, the wild relatives of our first cereals).…”

Monogonont rotifers as model systems for the study of micro-evolutionary adaptation and its eco-evolutionary implications

“…Rapid adaptation is also a potentially important determinant of gene flow among populations (monopolization hypothesis;De Meester et al, 2002), and is a key process in the theoretical framework of evolving metacommunities (Urban et al, 2012). Furthermore, the consequences of evolutionary changes in the phenotype of organisms may go as far as impacting the functioning of entire ecosystems (Matthews et al, 2011(Matthews et al, , 2014Miner et al, 2012).…”