Natural selection, plasticity, and the rationale for largest-scale trends.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Ecology
• Genetics

Background:

• The prevailing view questions inherent directional trends in natural selection, such as increasing body size or complexity over evolutionary time.
• Previous arguments suggest no intrinsic evolutionary pressure for continuous increases in these traits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To challenge the notion that natural selection lacks inherent directional trends.
• To propose that selection for adaptations to environmental variability inherently drives evolutionary trends.
• To demonstrate how this framework applies to phenotypic plasticity.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical argumentation on the role of natural selection in response to environmental variability.
• Conceptual analysis of evolutionary trends driven by adaptation to environmental change.
• Application of the framework to the specific case of phenotypic plasticity.

Main Results:

• Argues that selection for adaptations to environmental variability is a fundamental driver of evolutionary trends.
• Contends that given the inevitability of environmental variability, directional trends in adaptations are expected.
• Illustrates this principle by applying it to the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.

Conclusions:

• Natural selection, when acting on adaptations to environmental variability, can indeed produce directional evolutionary trends.
• Environmental variability is an inevitable force that shapes evolutionary trajectories.
• The study provides a framework for understanding trends in traits like phenotypic plasticity as a consequence of adaptation to variability.