Figures in a Landscape: Biosemiotics and the Ecological Evolution of Cultural Creativity

Wendy Wheeler

doi:10.1353/esp.2006.0029

Dérives écologiques et gestion du milieu fluvial rhodannien / Ecological evolution and management of the natural environment of the Rhône valley

Revue de géographie de Lyon ◽

10.3406/geoca.1997.4676 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 72 (1) ◽

pp. 35-48

Author(s):

Jean-François Fruget ◽

Jean-Louis Michelot

Keyword(s):

Natural Environment ◽

Ecological Evolution ◽

Rhone Valley

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Have Niche, Will Travel. New Means of Linking Diet and Ecomorphology Reveals Niche Conservatism in Freshwater Cottoid Fishes

Integrative Organismal Biology ◽

10.1093/iob/obz023 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

T J Buser ◽

D L Finnegan ◽

A P Summers ◽

M A Kolmann

Keyword(s):

Niche Conservatism ◽

Freshwater Species ◽

Evolutionary Transitions ◽

Adaptive Diversification ◽

Functional Aspects ◽

Ecological Evolution ◽

Jaw Apparatus ◽

Cottoid Fishes ◽

Freshwater Habitats ◽

Dietary Niche

Synopsis Evolutionary transitions between habitats have been catalysts for some of the most stunning examples of adaptive diversification, with novel niches and new resources providing ecological opportunity for such radiations. In aquatic animals, transitions from saltwater to freshwater habitats are rare, but occur often enough that in the Neotropics for example, marine-derived fishes contribute noticeably to regional ichthyofaunal diversity. Here, we investigate how morphology has evolved in a group of temperate fishes that contain a marine to freshwater transition: the sculpins (Percomorpha; Cottoidea). We devised a novel method for classifying dietary niche and relating functional aspects of prey to their predators. Coupled with functional measurements of the jaw apparatus in cottoids, we explored whether freshwater sculpins have fundamentally changed their niche after invading freshwater (niche lability) or if they retain a niche similar to their marine cousins (niche conservatism). Freshwater sculpins exhibit both phylogeographical and ecological signals of phylogenetic niche conservatism, meaning that regardless of habitat, sculpins fill similar niche roles in either saltwater or freshwater. Rather than competition guiding niche conservatism in freshwater cottoids, we argue that strong intrinsic constraints on morphological and ecological evolution are at play, contra to other studies of diversification in marine-derived freshwater fishes. However, several intertidal and subtidal sculpins as well as several pelagic freshwater species from Lake Baikal show remarkable departures from the typical sculpin bauplan. Our method of prey categorization provides an explicit, quantitative means of classifying dietary niche for macroevolutionary studies, rather than relying on somewhat arbitrary means used in previous literature.

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Peer Review #1 of "Mountain colonisation, miniaturisation and ecological evolution in a radiation of direct-developing New Guinea Frogs (Choerophryne, Microhylidae) (v0.2)"

10.7287/peerj.3077v0.2/reviews/1 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

MD Scherz

Keyword(s):

Peer Review ◽

New Guinea ◽

Ecological Evolution

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Preface

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.1965.0012 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 249 (759) ◽

pp. 258-258

Keyword(s):

Geographical Distribution ◽

Endemic Species ◽

Scientific Interest ◽

Ecological Stability ◽

Ecological Balance ◽

Tristan Da Cunha ◽

Ecological Evolution ◽

Gough Island ◽

Island Group

The four islands of the Tristan da Cunha-Gough Island group are very isolated. They contain a unique fauna and flora. Knowledge of these is very incomplete in important respects. Such knowledge could not only help towards understanding the origins of the geographical distribution of plants and animals, it could also throw valuable light on the factors governing colonization of isolated regions. But it is not only the unique biota which is of scientific interest in these islands. We have here a natural ecological balance between the endemic species of an impoverished and therefore simple fauna and flora. Such islands could thus allow us to study with comparative ease the factors which control ecological stability; a study of the great importance to mankind today. Moreover, fortunately there have now been found in these islands evidence of datable remains of the geologically recent biota, so that there is a reasonable chance that we shall one day be able to trace the ecological evolution in time.

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