Organism and environment : ecological development, niche construction, and adaption

241 Pages·2015·7.86 MB·English

by  Sultan

Organism and Environment

Organism and
Environment
Ecological Development, Niche
Construction, and Adaptation
Sonia E. Sultan
Department of Biology and Program in Environmental Studies
Wesleyan University
1
1
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This book is dedicated to my teachers, Fakhri Bazzaz and Dick Lewontin,
and to Kendall and Jasmine, with love

Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to a number of individuals and and copyright information. I also thank Christine
organizations whose contributions strengthened Boylan, Elizabeth Farrell, Kaarkuzhali Gunasekaran,
and supported the book. The following colleagues and the production staff at Oxford for their gracious
kindly offered expert comments on parts of the and skillful assistance.
text: Ann C. Burke, Robert Dorit, James Griesemer, A year’s fellowship at the extraordinary Wissen-
Jason Herman, Felicia Low, and William F. Morris. I schaftskolleg zu Berlin (2012–2013) provided the
am especially grateful to Ben Kerr, Peter Gluckman, time and freedom (in every sense) to investigate
and Hamish Spencer, each of whom read extend- and develop these ideas. My deepest thanks to the
ed parts of the manuscript and spent hours with Fellows who inspired and drank with me, and to
me in intensive discussion. The insight, rigor, and the dedicated and able staff. I also thank The Eppley
generosity of all of these early readers are deep- Foundation for Research, which generously funded
ly appreciated. I also thank Kevin Laland, Felicia a semester’s leave devoted to writing. I am grateful
Low, and Dylan Schwilk for suggesting references to the scientific staff of The Liggins Institute, Uni-
in specific areas; Mary Rumpho for feedback on the versity of Auckland, for stimulating and extreme-
description of Elysia chlorotica; Scott Gilbert; Eva ly fruitful discussion, and to the institute itself and
Jablonka; H. Frederik Nijhout; Dominique Pestre; Wesleyan University’s Center for Global Studies for
Johanna Schmitt; and Mary Jane West-Eberhard for funding a 2014 visit.
advice and encouragement during the course of Finally, my thanks to the general editors of the
the writing. Scientists, nature bloggers, and others Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution, Robert
who have generously allowed use of photographs May and Paul Harvey, for their initial interest in the
and other images are credited individually in figure project, and Charles Godfray for his constructive
captions; I very much appreciate their contrib utions. comments on an early chapter. Editors Lucy Nash
Hea-Ream Lee carefully formatted the reference list, and Ian Sherman have provided support through-
and William Fraker assisted in c ompiling images out, and I am grateful for their patience.
vii

Contents
Introduction xiii
1 The environmental context of development 1
1.1 The genome as a regulatory system 2
1.2 Extragenomic developmental information: epigenetics and environment 9
1.2.1 Variability and heredity expanded: epigenetic regulation of gene
expression 9
1.2.2 The environment as a source of developmental information 14
1.3 Plasticity, ecological development, and the norm of reaction 20
1.3.1 The norm of reaction 21
1.3.2 Norm of reaction diversity and genotype–environment interaction 22
1.3.3 Implementing a norm of reaction approach 26
1.3.4 A unified view of development 28
2 The organism–environment relationship: Ecological niches, adaptation,
eco-devo, and niche construction 31
2.1 The case of the green sea slug 32
2.2 Resolving the ecological niche 33
2.3 Adaptation 35
2.3.1 Ecological development and the adapted phenotype 36
2.3.2 The principle of niche construction 37
2.3.3 Niche construction via modifications of the external environment 38
2.3.4 Niche construction via modifications of the environmental experience 41
2.4 Focusing on the organism–environment relationship  45
3 Mechanisms of plasticity: Eco-devo pathways as environmental cue
and response systems 49
3.1 Plastic trait expression 49
3.1.1 Adaptive and inevitable aspects of plastic expression 50
3.1.2 Plastic response in animals versus plants 51
3.2 Environmental cues 52
3.3 An overview of phenotypic response mechanisms 55
3.4 Cue and response systems: plant and animal case studies 60
3.4.1 Light cues and plant developmental responses to shade
from neighbors 60
3.4.2 Habitat transience and risk cues for amphibian metamorphic timing 62
3.4.3 Plant (and some animal) defensive responses to predation cues 65
ix