When I first encountered the idea of Niche
Construction some years ago, the impression I got was that the authors were
ecologists who had strayed into evolution theory. They appeared to have
re-invented concepts such as the Red Queen hypothesis (Van
Valen 1973),
phenotypic plasticity (West-Eberhard
2003), and the extended
phenotype idea (Dawkins
1999), as well as long
standing seral succession theory; e.g. (Clements
1916), and rolled them all
together under one umbrella as a Darwinian process. There were also hints of
mysticism touching on Gaia (Lovelock
1995). Re-reading some of the
stuff last week (Jones 2005; Post and Palkovacs 2009), I was struck again by
the same thoughts and yet, judging from comments on Google, the idea has
garnered much support end even hyperbole, including two Nature papers, special
conferences, a text book (Odling-Smee,
Laland et al. 2003), and enthusiastic
praise by prominent people such as Robert May and Richard Lewontin. Anything
attracting so much attention is not easy to ignore.
I find that Richard Dawkins (Dawkins
2004), dismisses the Niche
Construction idea on the grounds that it attempts to role together into one
grand theory, Darwinian inheritance and non-Darwinian effects (echoes of Gaia
again?). Among the latter are succession, accumulation of excretory products
and oxygen generation all coming together, along with things like nest construction,
under the heading ‘ecological inheritance’. The authors make some thought
provoking points but from the evolutionary perspective it sounds like nonsense
and I am inclined, like Dawkins, to dismiss the whole thing. Dipping into the Odling-Smee
et al. text book, I have no reason to change my mind. Most telling, I can find
nowhere that they address the point raised by Dawkins. We will have to wait and
see if the idea survives the test of time. I am ready to be proved wrong.
References
Clements, F. E. (1916). Plant Succession.
Washington, Carnegie Institute.
Dawkins, R. (1999). The Extended
Phenotype. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Dawkins, R. (2004). "Extended
Phenotype - but not too extended. A Reply to Laland, Turner and Jablonka."
Biology and Philosophy 19:
377-396.
Jones, D. (2005). "Personal
Effects." Nature 438:
14-16.
Lovelock, J. E. (1995). The Ages of Gaia.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Odling-Smee, F. J., K. N. Laland, et al.
(2003). Niche Construction. The Neglected Process in Evolution.
Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Post, D. M. and E. P. Palkovacs (2009).
"Eco-evolutionary Feedbacks in Community and Ecosystem Ecology:
Interactions between the Ecological Theatre and the Evolutionary Play. ." Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society (B). 384:
1629-1640.
Van Valen, L. (1973). "A New
Evolutionary Law." Evolutionary theory 1: 1-30.
West-Eberhard, M. J. (2003). Developmental
Plasticity and Evolution. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
