Ecological inheritance

Orb-Web Spider

Ecological inheritance occurs when organisms inhabit a modified environment that a previous generation created; therefore, the selective pressures created from the modifications must remain for the next generation in order for it to be deemed ecological inheritance.[1] It was first described in Odling-Smee (1988)[2] and Odling-Smee et al. (1996)[3] as a consequence of niche construction. Standard evolutionary theory focuses on the influence that natural selection and genetic inheritance has on biological evolution, when individuals that survive and reproduce also transmit genes to their offspring.[4] If offspring do not live in a modified environment created by their parents, then niche construction activities of parents do not affect the selective pressures of their offspring (see orb-web spiders in Genetic inheritance vs. ecological inheritance below).[4] However, when niche construction affects multiple generations (i.e., parents and offspring), ecological inheritance acts an inheritance system different than genetic inheritance which is also termed "legacy effects".[1]

Since ecological inheritance is a result of ecosystem engineering[5][6] and niche construction, the fitness of several species and their subsequent generations experience a selective pressure dependent on the modified environment they inherit.[7][4] Organisms in subsequent generations will encounter ecological inheritance because they are affected by a new selective environment created by prior niche construction.[4] On a macroevolutionary scale, ecological inheritance has been defined as, "... the persistence of environmental modifications by a species over multiple generations to influence the evolution of that or other species."[8] Ecological inheritance has also been defined as, "... the accumulation of environmental changes, such as altered soil, atmosphere or ocean states that previous generations have brought about through their niche-constructing activity, and that influence the development of descendant organisms."[4][8][9]

If when an organism or environment is responding to an environmental factor and certain factors and/or features of said organism/environment are advantageous in regards to natural selection, then those factors/features are related to niche construction and ecological inheritance.[10]  For example, a feature of the environment may have increased the fitness of an individual by enabling it to acquire a food resource or evade a predator more efficiently. In this context, natural selection promotes a correspondence between features and factors, defined as synerg.[4][10] Ecological inheritance occurs when an organism experiences an altered factor-feature relationship with selected pressures originating from parents or ancestral generations.[4] Richard Lewontin stresses how by modifying the availability of biotic and abiotic resources, niche-constructing organisms can cause organisms to coevolve with their environments.[11]

  1. ^ a b Odling-Smee, John; Laland, Kevin N. (2011-09-01). "Ecological Inheritance and Cultural Inheritance: What Are They and How Do They Differ?". Biological Theory. 6 (3): 220–230. doi:10.1007/s13752-012-0030-x. ISSN 1555-5550.
  2. ^ Odling-Smee, F. J. (1988). Niche-constructing phenotypes. In H. C. Plotkin (Ed.), The role of behavior in evolution (pp. 73–132). The MIT Press.
  3. ^ Odling-Smee, F. John; Laland, Kevin N.; Feldman, Marcus W. (1996). "Niche Construction". The American Naturalist. 147 (4): 641–648. doi:10.1086/285870. ISSN 0003-0147. JSTOR 2463239. S2CID 222326061.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g ODLING-SMEE, F. JOHN; LALAND, KEVIN N.; FELDMAN, MARCUS W. (2003). Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution (MPB-37). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-04437-8. JSTOR j.ctt24hqpd.
  5. ^ Jones, Clive G.; Lawton, John H.; Shachak, Moshe (October 1997). "Positive and Negative Effects of Organisms as Physical Ecosystem Engineers". Ecology. 78 (7): 1946–1957. doi:10.1890/0012-9658(1997)078[1946:PANEOO]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0012-9658.
  6. ^ Jones, Clive G.; Lawton, John H.; Shachak, Moshe (1994), "Organisms as Ecosystem Engineers", Ecosystem Management, New York, NY: Springer New York, pp. 130–147, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-4018-1_14, ISBN 978-0-387-94667-2, retrieved 2023-05-10
  7. ^ Danchin, Étienne; Charmantier, Anne; Champagne, Frances A.; Mesoudi, Alex; Pujol, Benoit; Blanchet, Simon (July 2011). "Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution". Nature Reviews Genetics. 12 (7): 475–486. doi:10.1038/nrg3028. ISSN 1471-0056. PMID 21681209. S2CID 8837202.
  8. ^ a b Erwin, D (June 2008). "Macroevolution of ecosystem engineering, niche construction and diversity". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 23 (6): 304–310. Bibcode:2008TEcoE..23..304E. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.01.013. PMID 18457902.
  9. ^ Laland, Kevin N.; Uller, Tobias; Feldman, Marcus W.; Sterelny, Kim; Müller, Gerd B.; Moczek, Armin; Jablonka, Eva; Odling-Smee, John (2015-08-22). "The extended evolutionary synthesis: its structure, assumptions and predictions". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1813): 20151019. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.1019. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4632619. PMID 26246559.
  10. ^ a b Bock, Walter J. (1980). "The Definition and Recognition of Biological Adaptation". American Zoologist. 20 (1): 217–227. doi:10.1093/icb/20.1.217. ISSN 0003-1569. JSTOR 3882363.
  11. ^ Lewontin, Richard C. (1983). "Gene, Organism and Environment". In Bendall, D. S. (ed.). Evolution from Molecules to Men. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521289337.