Topic
Adaptive value
About: Adaptive value is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 169 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11025 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
1 / 2
Papers
TL;DR: The decade-long study of spiny mice of rocky deserts demonstrates that, while different factors select for activity patterns, endogenous rhythmicity may be an evolutionary constraint.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract Animal species have evolved different diel activity rhythms that are of adaptive value. Theory suggests that diel temporal partitioning may facilitate coexistence between competitors and between predators and prey. However, relatively few studies demonstrate a temporal shift that is predation- or competition-induced. Recorded shifts are usually within the preferred activity phase of animal species (day or night), although there are some inversions to the opposite phase cycle. Temporal partitioning is not perceived as a common mechanism of coexistence. This rarity has been variously ascribed to theoretical considerations and to the rigidity of time-keeping mechanisms, as well as to other physiological and anatomical traits that may constrain activity patterns. Our decade-long study of spiny mice of rocky deserts demonstrates that, while different factors select for activity patterns, endogenous rhythmicity may be an evolutionary constraint.
950 citations
TL;DR: This article addresses the importance of ecological sorting processes as primary causes of functional trait distributions at the local and landscape level and proposes three scenarios in which a species’ distributional responses to environmental conditions will lead to a “mismatch” between its environmental tolerances and the environments it occupies, thus creating opportunities for adaptive evolution.
Abstract: The widespread correspondence between phenotypic variation and environmental conditions, the “fit” of organisms to their environment, reflects the adaptive value of plant functional traits. Several processes contribute to these patterns: plasticity, ecological sorting, and adaptive evolution. This article addresses the importance of ecological sorting processes (community assembly, migration, habitat tracking, etc.) as primary causes of functional trait distributions at the local and landscape level. In relatively saturated communities, plants will establish and regenerate in environments to which they are well adapted, so their distributions, and the distributions of associated functional traits, will reflect the distribution of optimal or near‐optimal environmental conditions in space and time. The predicted evolutionary corollary of this process is that traits related to habitat occupancy, e.g., environmental tolerances, will be under stabilizing selection. This process contributes to the widely observ...
895 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that Bělehradek's temperature function gives a close fit to size and development rate of several species of zooplankters growing in adequate food supply, although conclusions do not depend on the theoretical content of this equation.
Abstract: Existing theories of the adaptive value of vertical migration are examined and found wanting. Adult size and generation length are negative functions of temperature. It is shown that Bělehradek's t...
567 citations
TL;DR: A challenge for the future is to assess the adaptive value of particular mechanisms of host-selection, and to relate these to the predictions made in simple adaptive models.
Abstract: Host-plant selection by phytophagous insects is largely determined by adult insects choosing the developmental location of offspring. Knowledge of natural selection leads to theoretical predictions about how adult behaviour might respond to host quality, the abundance of host-plants, adult egg-load, age and available search time, density-dependence, and stochastic effects. Debates about the value of simple adaptive models can only be settled by repeated testing and reformulation. The theoretical basis of adaptive host-selection is quite strong, but several challenges remain. Models are lacking which are both general enough to be applicable to a wide range of species, and easy to test. The role of variability in plant abundance and other stochastic forces requires clarification. Empirically, good field studies of the effect of host-plants on insect fitness are rare, but without them little progress can be made. The assessment of host-preference also requires attention. Quantitative tests of theory are rare, probably because general models do not encompass enough relevant natural history for each particular species. However much anecdotal and qualitative evidence seems to reflect adaptive predictions. A challenge for the future is to assess the adaptive value of particular mechanisms of host-selection, and to relate these to the predictions made in simple adaptive models.
532 citations
TL;DR: Using cyanobacterial strains with different clock properties growing in competition with each other, it is found that strains with a functioning biological clock defeat clock-disrupted strains in rhythmic environments and indicates that this adaptive value is only fulfilled in cyclic environments.
409 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 |
| 2024 | 16 |
| 2023 | 10 |
| 2022 | 17 |
| 2021 | 18 |
| 2020 | 10 |