This book is the second of two volumes in a series on terrestrial and marine comparisons, focusing on the temporal complement of the earlier spatial analysis of patchiness and pattern (Levin et al. 1993). The issue of the relationships among pattern, scale, and patchiness has been framed forcefully in John Steele’s writings of two decades (e.g., Steele 1978). There is no pattern without an observational frame. In the words of Nietzsche, “There are no facts… only interpretations.”

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2307/1941447

The Problem of Pattern and Scale in Ecology: The Robert H. MacArthur Award Lecture

Studies of local adaptation provide important insights into the power of natural selection relative to gene flow and other evolutionary forces. They are a paradigm for testing evolutionary hypotheses about traits favoured by particular environmental factors. This paper is an attempt to summarize the conceptual framework for local adaptation studies. We first review theoretical work relevant for local adaptation. Then we discuss reciprocal transplant and common garden experiments designed to detect local adaptation in the pattern of deme · habitat interaction for fitness. Finally, we review research questions and approaches to studying the processes of local adaptation ‐ divergent natural selection, dispersal and gene flow, and other processes affecting adaptive differentiation of local demes. We advocate multifaceted approaches to the study of local adaptation, and stress the need for experiments explicitly addressing hypotheses about the role of particular ecological and genetic factors that promote or hinder local adaptation. Experimental evolution of replicated populations in controlled spatially heterogeneous environments allow direct tests of such hypotheses, and thus would be a valuable way to complement research on natural populations.

/pdf/conceptual-issues-in-local-adaptation-48foi7473m.pdf

Conceptual issues in local adaptation

Arthur Jensen argues that the failure of recent compensatory education efforts to produce lasting effects on children's IQ and achievement suggests that the premises on which these efforts have been based should be reexamined.

/pdf/how-much-can-we-boost-iq-and-scholastic-achievement-2dt4s2dafi.pdf

How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement

There appears to be a general relationship between abundance and distribution that has two parts. First, within species, population density tends to be greatest in the center of the range and to decline gradually toward the boundaries. This pattern holds over a range of spatial scales from steep environmental gradients within local regions to the entire geographic range. Exceptions include: (1) abrupt changes in abundance that usually correspond to sharp, discontinuous changes in single environmental variables; and (2) multimodal patterns of abundance that are caused by environmental patchiness. The second general relationship is that among closely related, ecologically similar species spatial distribution is positively correlated with average abundance. Again this pattern holds over a variety of spatial scales from local regions to entire geographic ranges. These empirical patterns have already been reported in the literature, but their generality is demonstrated by analysis of additional data for divers...

On the Relationship between Abundance and Distribution of Species

Two previous epidemiological studies of autistic twins suggested that autism was predominantly genetically determined, although the findings with regard to a broader phenotype of cognitive, and possibly social, abnormalities were contradictory. Obstetric and perinatal hazards were also invoked as environmentally determined aetiological factors. The first British twin sample has been re-examined and a second total population sample of autistic twins recruited. In the combined sample 60% of monozygotic (MZ) pairs were concordant for autism versus no dizygotic (DZ) pairs; 92% of MZ pairs were concordant for a broader spectrum of related cognitive or social abnormalities versus 10% of DZ pairs. The findings indicate that autism is under a high degree of genetic control and suggest the involvement of multiple genetic loci. Obstetric hazards usually appear to be consequences of genetically influenced abnormal development, rather than independent aetiological factors. Few new cases had possible medical aetiologies, refuting claims that recognized disorders are common aetiological influences.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033291700028099

A. W. F. Edwards

Papers

Introduction to Quantitative Genetics.