Barriers to adaptive reasoning in community ecology

Abstract

Recent high-profile calls for a more trait-focused approach to community ecology have the potential to open up novel research areas, generate new insights and to transform community ecology into a more predictive science. However, a renewed emphasis on function and phenotype also requires a fundamental shift in approach and research philosophy within community ecology to more fully embrace evolutionary reasoning. Such a subject-wise transformation will be difficult due to at least four factors: (1) the historical development of the academic discipline of ecology and its roots as a descriptive science; (2) the dominating role of the ecosystem concept in the driving of contemporary ecological thought; (3) the practical difficulties associated with defining and identifying (phenotypic) adaptations, and; (4) scaling effects in ecology; the difficulty of teasing apart the overlapping and shifting hierarchical processes that generate the observed environment-trait correlations in nature. We argue that the ability to predict future ecological conditions through a sufficient understanding of ecological processes will not be achieved without the placement of the concept of adaptation at the centre of ecology, with influence radiating outwards through all the related (and rapidly specializing) sub-disciplines.

Drip‐tips are Associated with Intensity of Precipitation in the Amazon Rain Forest

“…From a methodological context, this study demonstrates that traits‐based macrogeographic/macroecological approaches can play an important role in the identification and assessment of adaptations (McLachlan & Ladle ). Specifically, macrogeographic studies have at least three advantages over smaller‐scale manipulative experiments: they can uncover previously unrecognized environment‐trait correlations revealing ecogeographic patterns that would be weak or invisible at finer spatial scales, they have the potential to discriminate between strong and weak selective pressures, and they may suggest new avenues for research.…”

“…Previous approaches to understanding drip‐tip form and function have mostly been local or experimental, and our hope was that taking a macroecological approach would yield new insights into the adaptive significance of this fascinating and widespread trait ( cf . McLachlan & Ladle ).…”

Plasticity in the shape and growth pattern of asteriscus otolith of black prochilodus Prochilodus nigricans (Teleostei: Characiformes: Prochilodontidae) freshwater Neotropical migratory fish

“…Although they were not linked to one specific river, slight differences were observed in their predominance, which may be related to adaptive responses (evolutionary) and environmental conditions (selective pressures) within of each rivers of the Amazon Basin (Swain, Foote, 1999;Hubert, Renno, 2006). Changes in otolith morphology (sagittae, asteriscus or lapilli) are the result of an interaction between environmental factors and genetic plasticity (Teimori et al, 2012;Vignon, 2015;Avigliano et al, 2016), which are complex of interpretation since they may be generated by a variety of processes and interactions such as ontogenetic, adaptations, biogeographic and phylogenetic processes (Mclachlan et al, 2011;Tuset et al, 2016b). Indeed, otolith morphotypes may reflect adaptations to optimize fish survival in the context of different sound environments (Gauldie, Crampton, 2002).…”

Scale-dependent natural variation in larval nutritional reserves in a marine invertebrate: implications for recruitment and cross-ecosystem coupling

“…There are several hurdles hampering our understanding of the effects of larval reserves on recruitment in marine invertebrates. First, variation in larval reserves must be evaluated at multiple scales: variation is expected to be scale-dependent in time and space (McLachlan & Ladle 2011, Sotka 2012, Todd et al 2012) because it will originate from biotic and abiotic processes operating at a hierarchy of scales (Wiens 1989, Levin 1992, Chave 2013. Second, nutritional reserves must be quantified in tiny larvae that are difficult to collect in sufficient numbers at specific stages of the life cycle.…”