Rethinking Adaptation: The Niche Construction Perspective.

Day, R.L.; Laland, K.N.; Odling-Smee, J.

Abstract

Niche construction refers to the capacity of organisms to construct, modify and select important components of their local environments, such as nests, burrows, pupal cases, chemicals and nutrients. A small, but increasing number of evolutionary biologists regard niche construction as an evolutionary process in its own right, rather than as just a product of natural selection. Through niche construction organisms not only shape the nature of their world, but also in part determine the selection pressures to which they and their descendants are exposed. Mathematical population genetics analyses have revealed that niche construction is likely to be evolutionarily consequential because of the feedback that it generates in the evolutionary process. A parallel movement has emerged in ecosystem ecology, where researchers stress the utility of regarding organisms as ecosystem engineers, who partly control energy and matter flows. From the niche construction standpoint, the evolving complementary match between organisms and environments is the product of reciprocal interacting processes of natural selection and niche construction. This essay reviews the arguments put forward in favour of the niche construction perspective.

Citation

Day, R., Laland, K., & Odling-Smee, J. (2003). Rethinking Adaptation: The Niche Construction Perspective. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 46, 80-95

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2003
• Journal: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
• Print ISSN: 0031-5982
• Electronic ISSN: 1529-8795
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Pages: 80-95.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1536859