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Community-level evolutionary processes: Linking community genetics with replicator-interactor theory.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Community-level selection requires distinct inheritance and heritability, which are often confused. Viewing ecological communities as interactors offers a stronger evolutionary model than experimental designs that impose inheritance.

Keywords:
community geneticsextended phenotypemultilevel selection theoryreplicator/interactor

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics

Background:

  • Community-level selection is a key concept in evolutionary biology.
  • Lewontin's criteria for community-level selection necessitate both community-level inheritance and heritability.
  • These two components are frequently conflated in community and ecosystem genetics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To clarify the distinction between community-level inheritance and heritability.
  • To evaluate the empirical support for community-level selection in natural systems.
  • To propose a more robust theoretical framework for understanding the evolutionary role of ecological communities.

Main Methods:

  • Critically analyzing existing experimental designs used to study community-level inheritance.
  • Reviewing theoretical frameworks such as Hull's replicator-interactor model and Dawkins's extended phenotype concept.
  • Proposing an alternative conceptualization of communities as interactors.

Main Results:

  • Existing studies often impose community-level inheritance through experimental design, weakening support for natural community-level selection.
  • Conflation of inheritance and heritability obscures the conditions necessary for community-level selection.
  • Treating communities as interactors provides a more plausible and empirically tractable model.

Conclusions:

  • A clearer conceptual distinction between community-level inheritance and heritability is crucial.
  • Experimental designs need to be carefully evaluated for their ability to reflect natural evolutionary processes.
  • The interactor framework offers a promising avenue for future research into community evolution.