Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

This review organizes ideas on the evolution of life histories. The key life-history traits are brood size, size of young, the age distribution of reproductive effort, the interaction of reproductive effort with adutl mortality, and the variation in these traits among an individual's progeny. The general theoretical problem is to predict which combinations of traits will evolve in organisms living in specified circumstances. First consider single traits. Theorists have made the following predictions: (1) Where adult exceeds juvenile mortality, the organism should reproduce only once in its lifetime. Where juvenile exceeds adult mortality, the organism should reproduce several times. (2) Brood size should maximize the number of young surviving to maturity, summed over the lifetime of the parent. But when optimum brood-size varies unpredictably in time, smaller broods should be favored because they decrease the chances of total failure on a given attempt. (3) In expanding populations, selection should minim...

Life-history tactics: a review of the ideas.

Genetics and analysis of quantitative traits

The taxonomic challenge posed by cryptic species (two or more distinct species classified as a single species) has been recognized for nearly 300 years, but the advent of relatively inexpensive and rapid DNA sequencing has given biologists a new tool for detecting and differentiating morphologically similar species. Here, we synthesize the literature on cryptic and sibling species and discuss trends in their discovery. However, a lack of systematic studies leaves many questions open, such as whether cryptic species are more common in particular habitats, latitudes or taxonomic groups. The discovery of cryptic species is likely to be non-random with regard to taxon and biome and, hence, could have profound implications for evolutionary theory, biogeography and conservation planning.

/pdf/cryptic-species-as-a-window-on-diversity-and-conservation-jniv7vmufg.pdf

Cryptic species as a window on diversity and conservation

Although it is widely acknowledged that a plant’s tolerance of herbivore damage depends on resource availability in the plant’s environment, there is no consensus on whether higher resource levels lead to greater or to lower tolerance. The prevailing model, the compensatory continuum hypothesis (CCH), predicts that tolerance of herbivory should be greater in high‐resource or low‐competition conditions. The main rival hypothesis, the growth rate model (GRM), makes the opposite prediction: tolerance of herbivory should be greater in more stressful conditions. The tolerance predictions of a recently introduced model, the limiting resource model (LRM), are more flexible and depend on the type of resource and herbivore under consideration. We reviewed 48 studies (from 40 published articles) of plant tolerance of leaf damage in conditions differing in levels of light, inorganic nutrients, water stress, or competition. The results of 31%, 48%, and 95% of the studies were consistent with the predictions...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/512044

Effects of Resource Availability on Tolerance of Herbivory: A Review and Assessment of Three Opposing Models

Vegetation of the Archbold Biological Station, Florida: an example of the southern Lake Wales Ridge

This work presents the results of over 25 years of studying plant-insect interactions. The study centres on the ecology and evolution of interactions among a host plant, the parasitic insect that attacks it, and the insects and birds that are the parasite's natural enemies. Since this system provides a model that can be subjected to experimental manipulations, it has allowed the authors to address specific theories and concepts that have guided biological research for more than two decades and to engage general problems in evolutionary biology. The specific subjects of research are the host plant goldenrod ("Solidago"), the parasitic insect "Eurosta solidaginis" ("Diptera: Tephritidae") that induces a gall on the plant stem, and a number of natural enemies of the gallfly. By presenting their detailed empirical studies of the "Solidago-Eurosta" natural enemy system, the authors demonstrate the complexities of specialized enemy-victim interactions and, thereby, the complex interactive relationships among species more broadly.

Evolutionary Ecology across Three Trophic Levels: Goldenrods, Gallmakers, and Natural Enemies

Based on Gadgil and Solbrig's (1972) ideas concerning the distribution of resources between the reproductive and vegetative tissues, it is predicted that the ratio of reproductive biomass/total biomass (reproductive effort) will decline with the increasing successional maturity of the community. This prediction was confirmed in field studies utilizing four species of goldenrods. The distribution of resources among the various vegetative tissues should depend on the nature of the limiting factor and the growth form of the dominant plants competing for this limiting factor. Thus, it is predicted that the ratio of stem biomass/total biomass will decline and that of leaf biomass/total biomass will increase for light-limited plant populations as the growth form of competitors changes from being one of the same stature (herbs with herbs) to being one of greater stature (herbs with trees). These two predictions are likewise confirmed in goldenrods. The problem of how these differences in the distribution of reso...

Growth Form and Reproductive Effort in Goldenrods (Solidago, Compositae)

The impact that herbivore damage has on plant fitness depends on the environmental conditions in which the plant is growing It has long been assumed that a plant's tolerance of herbivory should be greater in low-stress, resource-rich environments, and this assumption has been formalized in what has become known as the compensatory continuum hypothesis (CCH) Despite the widespread acceptance of the CCH, recently accumulating results from numerous studies relating resource levels to tolerance of herbivory show that the relationship is not as simple as this hypothesis predicts In fact, plants have often been found to be less tolerant of a given amount of herbivory in resource-rich environments than they are of the same amount of herbivory in resource-poor environments In this article, we present a new model, the limiting resource model (LRM), that can more reliably explain the range of observed effects of resource levels on tolerance The main advance of this model is that it specifically considers which factors are limiting plant fitness and which resources are affected by particular herbivores The LRM is presented in a general and flexible form as a flowchart with seven pathways to three potential outcomes: greater tolerance, equal tolerance, or lower tolerance in low- vs high-resource environments We then review a specific example to illustrate each of these seven pathways with a study from the published literature We finish with a description of four general criteria to direct the design of future studies to test the predictions of the LRM

Warren G. Abrahamson

Papers

Effects of Resource Availability on Tolerance of Herbivory: A Review and Assessment of Three Opposing Models

Vegetation of the Archbold Biological Station, Florida: an example of the southern Lake Wales Ridge

Evolutionary Ecology across Three Trophic Levels: Goldenrods, Gallmakers, and Natural Enemies

Growth Form and Reproductive Effort in Goldenrods (Solidago, Compositae)

Beyond the compensatory continuum: environmental resource levels and plant tolerance of herbivory