Niche Construction

Anthropology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Population Biology ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Original Writings ◽  
Multispecies Ethnography ◽  
Evolutionary Narratives

Niche construction is a concept that originated in evolutionary biology. It challenges the assumption that ecological niches are empty, pre-existing environmental spaces into which passive organisms must be fitted through adaptive natural selection. Niche construction theory argues that organisms construct their own niches when they actively select features of their current environment on which to rely, thereby influencing the selection pressures they encounter. Niche construction was developed after 1975, during a period when sociobiology had gained popularity among evolutionary theorists, with claims that all features of organisms, from anatomy to social behavior, could be explained in terms of natural selection on genes. Organisms, indeed, were disappearing as agents in evolutionary narratives. By the mid-1980s, however, sociobiological narratives were facing challenges. Perhaps the most successful were mounted by evolutionary theorists who borrowed mathematical models from population biology and used them to explore how Darwinian selection might operate on units of culture as well as on genes. During this period, the original writings on niche construction were also re-examined, and ways were sought to model the process mathematically. These efforts led to the publication in 2003 of the landmark text Niche Construction: The Neglected Process in Evolution, by John Odling-Smee, Kevin Laland, and Marcus Feldman. This volume has since become widely influential, not only among theorists of biological and cultural evolution but also among scholars in fields such as ecology and developmental biology, as well as in the human sciences. In anthropology, archaeologists and biological anthropologists in particular have found niche construction theoretically helpful for explaining such phenomena as our ancestors’ ability to outlast other hominin species in the Pleistocene, our success in domesticating plants and animals after ten thousand years ago, and our dramatic remaking of global landscapes and species distributions in what has been called the Anthropocene. As a result, work on niche construction is coming to intersect in provocative ways across the subfields of anthropology with work by sociocultural anthropologists interested in areas such as environmental anthropology, material culture, and multispecies ethnography.

scholarly journals Defining the niche for niche construction: evolutionary and ecological niches

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Trappes
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Habitat Degradation ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Niche Concept ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Extreme Habitat

AbstractNiche construction theory (NCT) aims to transform and unite evolutionary biology and ecology. Much of the debate about NCT has focused on construction. Less attention has been accorded to the niche: what is it, exactly, that organisms are constructing? In this paper I compare and contrast the definition of the niche used in NCT with ecological niche definitions. NCT’s concept of the evolutionary niche is defined as the sum of selection pressures affecting a population. So defined, the evolutionary niche is narrower than the ecological niche. Moreover, when contrasted with a more restricted ecological niche concept, it has a slightly different extension. I point out three kinds of cases in which the evolutionary niche does not coincide with realized ecological niches: extreme habitat degradation, commensalism, and non-limiting or super-abundant resources. These conceptual differences affect the role of NCT in unifying ecology and evolutionary biology.

scholarly journals Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1566) ◽  
pp. 785-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Kendal ◽  
Jamshid J. Tehrani ◽  
John Odling-Smee
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Genetic Inheritance ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Ecological Inheritance ◽  
Human Niche Construction ◽  
The Social

Niche construction is an endogenous causal process in evolution, reciprocal to the causal process of natural selection. It works by adding ecological inheritance , comprising the inheritance of natural selection pressures previously modified by niche construction, to genetic inheritance in evolution. Human niche construction modifies selection pressures in environments in ways that affect both human evolution, and the evolution of other species. Human ecological inheritance is exceptionally potent because it includes the social transmission and inheritance of cultural knowledge, and material culture. Human genetic inheritance in combination with human cultural inheritance thus provides a basis for gene–culture coevolution, and multivariate dynamics in cultural evolution. Niche construction theory potentially integrates the biological and social aspects of the human sciences. We elaborate on these processes, and provide brief introductions to each of the papers published in this theme issue.

scholarly journals Coordination in theory extension: how Reichenbach can help us understand endogenization in evolutionary biology

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Luchetti
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Mathematical Representations ◽  
Selection Theory ◽  
Semantic Extension ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Functional Extension ◽  
The Right ◽  
Natural Selection Theory

AbstractReichenbach’s early solution to the scientific problem of how abstract mathematical representations can successfully express real phenomena is rooted in his view of coordination. In this paper, I claim that a Reichenbach-inspired, ‘layered’ view of coordination provides us with an effective tool to systematically analyse some epistemic and conceptual intricacies resulting from a widespread theorising strategy in evolutionary biology, recently discussed by Okasha (2018) as ‘endogenization’. First, I argue that endogenization is a form of extension of natural selection theory that comprises three stages: quasi-axiomatisation, functional extension, and semantic extension. Then, I argue that the functional extension of one core principle of natural selection theory, namely, the principle of heritability, requires the semantic extension of the concept of inheritance. This is because the semantic extension of ‘inheritance’ is necessary to establish a novel form of coordination between the principle of heritability and the extended domain of phenomena that it is supposed to represent. Finally, I suggest that—despite the current lack of consensus on the right semantic extension of ‘inheritance’—we can fruitfully understand the reconceptualization of ‘inheritance’ provided by niche construction theorists as the result of a novel form of coordination.

scholarly journals Selección natural y construcción de nicho: una ¿dialéctica? evolucionista

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan R. Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Construction Technology ◽  
Selection Theory ◽  
Niche Construction Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
Transformation Processes ◽  
Natural Selection Theory

RESUMENEn el marco del pensamiento evolucionista de los últimos treinta años, la teoría de construcción de nicho ha ido abriéndose paso como una perspectiva opuesta a y complementaria de la teoría de la selección natural en la explicación del proceso evolutivo. El planteamiento que sigue aborda su oposición como un proceso de combinación de principios ecológicos (restrictivos) y técnicos (transformadores) que tienden un puente entre ciencias biológicas y ciencias humanas, basado en una analogía de la técnica que se naturaliza en procesos de trasformación en que los organismos «se trabajan» sus ambientes.PALABRAS CLAVECONSTRUCCIÓN DE NICHO, DIALÉCTICA, ECOLOGÍA, TÉCNICA, SELECCIÓN NATURALABSTRACTWithin the frame of evolutionary thought during the last thirty years, niche construction theory has been gaining ground as an opposed and complementary outlook regarding natural selection theory in the explanation of evolution. The following approach construes their opposition as a combination of ecologic (restrictive) and technologic (transformational) principles that serve as a bridge between biological and human sciences, based on an analogy with technology that is naturalized in terms of transformation processes wherein organisms «do their work on» their environments.KEYWORDSDIALECTICS, ECOLOGY, NATURAL SELECTION, NICHE CONSTRUCTION, TECHNOLOGY

Niche Construction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Laland
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Biological Anthropology ◽  
Extended Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Niche Construction Theory ◽  
Ecological Inheritance

Niche construction is the process whereby organisms, through their activities and choices, modify their own and each other’s niches. Examples of niche construction include the building of nests, burrows, and mounds and alternation of physical and chemical conditions by animals, and the creation of shade, influencing of wind speed, and alternation of nutrient cycling by plants. Here the “niche” is construed as the set of natural selection pressures to which the population is exposed (discussed in Ecology). By transforming natural selection pressures, niche construction generates feedback in evolution, on a scale hitherto underestimated and in a manner that alters the evolutionary dynamic. Niche construction also plays a critical role in ecology, in which it supports ecosystem engineering and eco-evolutionary feedbacks and, in part, regulates the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems. Niche construction theory is the body of formal (e.g., population genetic, population ecology) mathematical theory that explores niche construction’s evolutionary and ecological ramifications. Many organisms construct developmental environments for their offspring or modify environmental states for other descendants, a process known as “ecological inheritance.” In recent years, this ecological inheritance has been widely recognized as a core component of extra-genetic inheritance, and it is central to attempts within evolutionary biology to broaden the concept of heredity beyond transmission genetics. The development of many organisms—and the recurrence of traits across generations—has been found to depend critically on the construction of developmental environments by ancestors. Historically, the study of niche construction has been contentious because theoretical and empirical findings from niche construction theory appear to challenge some orthodox accounts of evolution. Many researchers studying niche construction embrace an alternative perspective in which niche construction is regarded as a fundamental evolutionary process in its own right, as well as a major source of adaptation. This perspective is aligned intellectually with other progressive movements within evolutionary biology that are calling for an extended evolutionary synthesis. In addition to ecology and evolution, niche construction theory has had an impact on a variety of disciplines, including archaeology, biological anthropology, conservation biology, developmental biology, earth sciences, and philosophy of biology.

Niche construction and the role of environment : towards a new logic of natural selection explanations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lynn Chiu
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Complex Traits ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Individual

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Biological systems may move in, feed on, socialize with, and change the world around it. How should we explain how these systems develop, act, think, and evolve? Internalists and externalists urge us to look past the entangled complexities and seek the drivers of life internally (such as genes or the brain, etc.) or externally (in the developmental, informational, social, etc. environment). Of course, everyone is an interactionist in a minimal sense, given that no system is entirely externally controlled or completely self sufficient, but sophisticated internalists and externalists think it fruitful to make intelligent bets about where to look first and how to prioritize the internal and external causes. The focus of this dissertation is externalism in evolutionary biology. Elsewhere in biology and psychology, mounting evidence that organisms maintain life activities through feedback loops with the environment have motivated theories to expand the notion of "organism" or incorporate environment as scaffolds. However, in light of all this change, the theory of natural selection has managed to stay stubbornly externalist. What I study and critique in this dissertation is the firmly held presupposition that natural selection is an environmentally driven phenomena, an assumption that drives research to almost always seek natural selection explanations of complex, plastic, and constructing systems in terms of some complex, fluctuating, challenge in the environment. It doesn't have to be. I lay down the steps that lead towards a new logic of natural selection, a form of evolution that is not necessarily driven by the environment. The first step is to figure out whether and how explanations by natural selection are externalist. Fitness, the core concept of natural selection explanations, is about how good a trait is in dealing with environmental pressures (Chapter 1). Natural selection is seen as an optimizing process that fits organisms to environment; its presence detected from correlations between organism and environment (Chapter 2). Applications of evolutionary theory outside of biology, for instance, in entrepreneurship and organization studies, export what they think are the core, defining features of natural selection, and to them, it explicitly includes an environment that is the locus of control (Chapter 3). The second step is to figure out what it takes to budge this strong externalist stance towards natural selection. Behavior, the ability of organisms to interact with their environments, is a common dividing factor in evolutionary internalist versus externalist debates. The internalist Lamarckian position postulates an "internal will" that drives organism evolution and development toward greater complexity, with the idiosyncratic use-and-disuse of the will resulting in diversity between species. The externalist Darwinian program, at its most extreme, holds that all features of the organism, including behavior, are merely passively selected for by the environment. Post-Darwin, the internalist position questions how powerful and important natural selection is for the evolution of complex traits. The anti-externalists move? To show that internal and interacting causes weaken the power of natural selection, as if natural selection explanations are always externalist. Behaviors stand at the intersection of organism and environment, and thus have been used to adjudicate internalist/externalist positions. I will thus focus on one type of behavior--niche construction: the ability of organisms to change their experienced environments--to question the staunching externalism of natural selection explanations. The last step is to move towards a different move against externalism by incorporating niche construction into natural selection, as a condition of natural selection instead of the latter's product or antagonizing force. I analyze what happens to the notion of fitness when organisms differ in fitness because of their abilities and the individual environments that are constructed, mingled, and responded to (Chapter 1). I examine theories of niche construction (Niche Construction Theory, pioneered by Kevin Laland, John Odling-Smee, and others, Dialectical Biology, by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, and Denis Walsh's Situated Adaptationism) to drive a distinction between niche construction as constitutive versus alternative to natural selection (Chapter 2). This last step sets the motivation and foundations for a new theory of natural selection and fitness.

scholarly journals Niche construction, sources of selection and trait coevolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 20160147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Laland ◽  
John Odling-Smee ◽  
John Endler
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Multiple Trait ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Ecological Legacies

Organisms modify and choose components of their local environments. This ‘niche construction’ can alter ecological processes, modify natural selection and contribute to inheritance through ecological legacies. Here, we propose that niche construction initiates and modifies the selection directly affecting the constructor, and on other species, in an orderly, directed and sustained manner. By dependably generating specific environmental states, niche construction co-directs adaptive evolution by imposing a consistent statistical bias on selection. We illustrate how niche construction can generate this evolutionary bias by comparing it with artificial selection. We suggest that it occupies the middle ground between artificial and natural selection. We show how the perspective leads to testable predictions related to: (i) reduced variance in measures of responses to natural selection in the wild; (ii) multiple trait coevolution, including the evolution of sequences of traits and patterns of parallel evolution; and (iii) a positive association between niche construction and biodiversity. More generally, we submit that evolutionary biology would benefit from greater attention to the diverse properties of all sources of selection.

Leroi-Gourhan and the Field of Ethnology

Paragraph ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-44
Author(s):  
Christopher Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Arctic Circle ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Language Technology ◽  
Formative Experience ◽  
Post War

The work of French ethnologist and prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan (1911–86) represents an important episode in twentieth-century intellectual history. This essay follows the development of Leroi-Gourhan's relationship to the discipline of ethnology from his early work on Arctic Circle cultures to his post-war texts on the place of ethnology in the human sciences. It shows how in the pre-war period there is already a conscious attempt to articulate a more comprehensive form of ethnology including the facts of natural environment and material culture. The essay also indicates the biographical importance of Leroi-Gourhan's mission to Japan as a decisive and formative experience of ethnographic fieldwork, combining the learning of a language with extended immersion in a distinctive material and mental culture. Finally, it explores how in the post-war period Leroi-Gourhan's more explicit meta-commentaries on the scope of ethnology argue for an extension of the discipline's more traditional domains of study to include the relatively neglected areas of language, technology and aesthetics.

The future of research with carnivorous plants

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Ellison ◽  
Lubomír Adamec
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Population Biology ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Species Concept ◽  
Intraspecific Variability ◽  
Carnivorous Plants ◽  
Assisted Migration ◽  
Transcriptomic Data ◽  
Phylogenetic Framework

The material presented in the chapters of Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution together provide a suite of common themes that could provide a framework for increasing progress in understanding carnivorous plants. All speciose genera would benefit from more robust, intra-generic classifications in a phylogenetic framework that uses a unified species concept. As more genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic data accrue, new insights will emerge regarding trap biochemistry and regulation; interactions with commensals; and the importance of intraspecific variability on which natural selection works. Continued elaboration of field experiments will provide new insights into basic physiology; population biology; plant-animal and plant-microbe relationships; and evolutionary dynamics, all of which will aid conservation efforts and contribute to discussions of assisted migration as the climate continues to change.

scholarly journals An ecological niche shift for Neanderthal populations in Western Europe 70,000 years ago

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Banks ◽  
Marie-Hélène Moncel ◽  
Jean-Paul Raynal ◽  
Marlon E. Cobos ◽  
Daniel Romero-Alvarez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Ecological Niche Modeling ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Niche Shift ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Niche Dynamics ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

AbstractMiddle Paleolithic Neanderthal populations occupied Eurasia for at least 250,000 years prior to the arrival of anatomically modern humans. While a considerable body of archaeological research has focused on Neanderthal material culture and subsistence strategies, little attention has been paid to the relationship between regionally specific cultural trajectories and their associated existing fundamental ecological niches, nor to how the latter varied across periods of climatic variability. We examine the Middle Paleolithic archaeological record of a naturally constrained region of Western Europe between 82,000 and 60,000 years ago using ecological niche modeling methods. Evaluations of ecological niche estimations, in both geographic and environmental dimensions, indicate that 70,000 years ago the range of suitable habitats exploited by these Neanderthal populations contracted and shifted. These ecological niche dynamics are the result of groups continuing to occupy habitual territories that were characterized by new environmental conditions during Marine Isotope Stage 4. The development of original cultural adaptations permitted this territorial stability.

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