Niche Markets 英文参考文献.docVIP

Book Review/Science in the Media Niche Markets Peter Manning and H. Charles J. Godfray nests, burrows, and protective cases argument then moves to proving a case for the universality of niche construction. Invoking the second law of thermodynamics and Maxwell’s Demon, the authors lead us through a challenging thesis that concludes that the persistence of life on earth requires both natural selection and niche construction, thereby justifying some of the bold claims for their new theory. We think they are technically correct, but we are concerned that the demonstration of the inescapability of niche construction, as de?ned here, does not guarantee that it will actually tell us new and important things about the world, as the theory of natural selection has. The remainder of the book explores the implications of niche-construction thinking for evolutionary biology, ecology, and the human sciences, and in our view is the most successful part. Though it is rare for the authors to offer new analysis and insight, their sideways look at many issues from the niche-construction viewpoint often offers interesting new angles on old problems, and suggests new avenues of enquiry that may be the book’s greatest legacy. A good example of this is their convincing and timely argument that a more explicit recognition of evolution’s role in environmental feedbacks will help to unify population/community ecology and ecosystem science. and so alter the environment they experience in a way that may select for further adaptations. The changes caused by some animal species, such as beavers and earthworms, are of a suf?cient magnitude that the environment experienced by a host of other species is affected. Many plant species also modify the environment they experience by generating organic litter; in?uencing hydrological and biogeochemical cycles; affecting temperature, humidity, and light regimes; and, over the longer term, determining the make up of the atmosphere. Decomposer and chemoaut