Indexically Structured Ecological Communities

Abstract

Ecological communities are seldom, if ever, biological individuals. They lack causal boundaries as the populations that constitute communities are not congruent and rarely have persistent functional roles regulating the communities' higher-level properties. Instead we should represent ecological communities indexically, by identifying ecological communities via the network of weak causal interactions between populations that unfurl from a starting set of populations. This precisification of ecological communities helps identify how community properties remain invariant, and why they have robust characteristics. This respects the diversity and aggregational nature of these complex systems while still vindicating them as units worthy of investigation.

Reciprocal Causation and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis

“…Reciprocal causation is central to this story, as it introduces a way of tweaking the parameters of evolutionary change (selection, variation, and heritability) that represent constraints on the mappings between networks and behavior. These reciprocal linkages are seen in the kind of reciprocal causal phenomena highlighted by EES optimists, things like developmental bias, niche construction, and inclusive inheritance, as well as those phenomena highlighted by Watson et al such as major transitions in individuality (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995) and ecosystem dynamics (Lean 2018). These phenomena are characterized by feedback between different kinds and levels of causation that generate "correlations or covariations between components that were previously independent" (Watson and Szathmáry 2016, p. 153).…”

Higher level constructive neutral evolution

“…Third, we should be careful to distinguish CNE from other theories used to explain the neutral origin and maintenance of biological complexity. Notably, the Zero Force Evolutionary Law (ZFEL), due to McShea (2020), McShea andBrandon (2010) and McShea et al (2019), and to the more recent work on contingency and entrenchment by Shah et al (2015) and Starr et al (2017;2018). Moreover the notion of presuppression is similar to Gould and Vrba's (1982) notion of a "preaptation", although the latter comes with the requirement of being fitness enhancing (see ibid.…”

Invasive species and natural function in ecology

“…The picture I have presented sits between the extremes. Ecological systems have complex causal relationships, but they are rarely selfmaintaining or evolutionary entities (Lean 2018). The large-scale communities which feature in conservation decision making will not possess normative functions.…”

“…With such tools in hand we can better compare the impact of conservation decisions on the environmental feature of interest to opposing parties. Different modes of injecting normativity into the causal nodes of ecosystem structure, the individual populations that form the ecological community's causal network, will play a role in deciding whether we should control invasive species (Lean 2018).…”