Niche Construction Affects the Variability and Strength of Natural Selection

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology

Background:

• Natural selection varies across time and space.
• Organisms can modify their environments through activities like nest building or resource selection.
• Understanding how these modifications influence selection is crucial for evolutionary studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how organism-constructed environments affect the variability of natural selection.
• To test if constructed environments reduce temporal and spatial variation in selection gradients.
• To determine if constructed environments lead to weaker directional selection.

Main Methods:

• Compiled and analyzed large datasets of selection gradients (1,045 temporal, 257 spatial, 1,230 pooled).
• Compared selection gradients from constructed versus nonconstructed sources of selection.
• Tested robustness of findings across different datasets, taxa, and analytical methods.

Main Results:

• Found compelling evidence for reduced temporal variation in selection gradients for constructed sources.
• Observed weaker directional selection in response to constructed sources compared to nonconstructed ones.
• Provided some evidence for reduced spatial variation in selection.

Conclusions:

• Organism-constructed or chosen environmental components exhibit different properties than natural environmental features.
• These constructed environments buffer environmental variation, leading to more stable selection.
• The findings have significant implications for understanding evolutionary trajectories and ecological dynamics.