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Entangled Life pp 187–211Cite as

Integrating Ecology and Evolution: Niche Construction and Ecological Engineering

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Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 4))

Abstract

Ecology and evolution remain poorly integrated despite their obvious mutual relevance. Such integration poses serious challenges: evolutionary biologists’ and ecologists’ conceptualizations of the organic world—and the models and theories based upon them—are conceptually incompatible. Work on organism-environment interaction by both evolutionary theorists (niche construction theory) and ecologists (ecosystem engineering theory) has begun to bridge the gap separating the two conceptual frameworks, but the integration achieved has so far been limited. An emerging extension of niche construction theory—ecological niche construction—now promises to achieve a richer integration of evolutionary and ecological conceptual frameworks. This work raises broader philosophical problems about how to choose and combine idealized models of complex phenomena, which can be addressed with the aid of ideas developed by biologists (such as Richard Levins) and philosophers (such as Sandra Mitchell) on the goals and strategies of model-building in the complex sciences. The result is an opening up of new pathways for conceptual change, empirical investigation, and reconsideration of the familiar that has only just begun. Ecological niche construction combines with new developments in evolutionary developmental biology to reveal the need for a deep transformation of the conceptual framework of evolution and the emergence of an integrative biology re-uniting development, evolution and ecology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Though one with deep historical roots: see Lewontin (1978), Godfrey-Smith (1996), and Pearce (2010).

  2. 2.

    Population genetics and population ecology individuate populations somewhat differently, but this contrast is not important here.

  3. 3.

    In humans, for example, niche construction is typically cultural; it depends primarily on acquired cultural traits, and not directly on inherited human genes (see Laland et al. 2001b, 2010; Odling-Smee and Laland 2012).

  4. 4.

    Though the reverse is not the case, since niche-constructing activities that are part of the trophic web would not normally be regarded as ecosystem engineering, and relocational niche construction would also normally be excluded. For a different view of the relationship between ecosystem engineering and niche construction see Pearce (2011).

  5. 5.

    This division is not an exclusive one, since artifacts are usually composed of abiotic and occasionally of biotic components. But artifacts as such have a distinctive role to play as environmental resources for organisms, as is indicated by their typical δR signatures.

  6. 6.

    Loreau notes that the first type of ecosystem evolution can also involve coevolution between species, but extended coevolutionary networks usually depend on the links provided by niche construction, as in the second type of ecosystem evolution.

  7. 7.

    For an approach to ecosystem evolution that treats ecosystems directly as units of selection, see Swenson et al. (2000) and Goodnight (2000).

  8. 8.

    For further discussion of such tradeoffs, see Orzack and Sober (1993), Odenbaugh (2003), Orzack (2005), Justus (2005), Weisberg (2006), and Matthewson and Weisberg (2009).

  9. 9.

    Pearce draws a similar conclusion at the end of his (2011).

  10. 10.

    Earlier events that have recently been given new and radically-different explanations are also relevant here: see for example work on the role of introduced species in facilitating European colonialism (Crosby 2004; Piper and Sandlos 2007).

  11. 11.

    Levins (1966) particularly emphasized the virtues of this balance of desiderata.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Western University, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada

    Gillian Barker

  2. Mansfield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    John Odling-Smee

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Gillian Barker

  2. Department of Philosophy, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Eric Desjardins

  3. Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

    Trevor Pearce

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Barker, G., Odling-Smee, J. (2014). Integrating Ecology and Evolution: Niche Construction and Ecological Engineering. In: Barker, G., Desjardins, E., Pearce, T. (eds) Entangled Life. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7067-6_10

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