Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Colonists and habitats
- 2 Genetics and ecology
- 3 Physical conditions, resources, and ecological phenotypes
- 4 Variability in natural populations
- 5 Genetic variability, ecological phenotypes, and stressful environments
- 6 Colonizing phenotypes and genotypes
- 7 Behavioral variability in natural populations
- 8 Habitat selection
- 9 The ecobehavioral phenotype: generalists and specialists
- 10 The ecobehavioral phenotype: biological control and domestication
- 11 Parasites and plants
- 12 Discussion and conclusions
- Appendix The study of quantitative traits
- References
- Index
8 - Habitat selection
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Colonists and habitats
- 2 Genetics and ecology
- 3 Physical conditions, resources, and ecological phenotypes
- 4 Variability in natural populations
- 5 Genetic variability, ecological phenotypes, and stressful environments
- 6 Colonizing phenotypes and genotypes
- 7 Behavioral variability in natural populations
- 8 Habitat selection
- 9 The ecobehavioral phenotype: generalists and specialists
- 10 The ecobehavioral phenotype: biological control and domestication
- 11 Parasites and plants
- 12 Discussion and conclusions
- Appendix The study of quantitative traits
- References
- Index
Summary
It is a fact within the experience of most persons, that the various species of animals are not uniformly distributed over the surface of the country.
[Wallace, 1876, Part 1:3]Habitat choice models
Although this book commenced mainly with ecological considerations, the last chapter was where the first major considerations of an ecobehavioral approach were presented. In any case, the development of a coherent evolutionary biology of an organism in its habitat depends upon a unification of genetics, ecology, and the study of behavior. For many organisms, we lack the necessary background information for attempts at unifying the three entities. There is also the difficulty of demonstrating the connection between the laboratory and the field. This requires the study of associations among species and genetic variants within species at the population level, with habitats chosen and resources utilized in nature. In the last few years, this is beginning to be achieved especially in Drosophila, so that at the intraspecific level, ecological and behavioral genetics are becoming merged into ecobehavioral genetics. Emphasis on this area of genetics should increase, given the rapid development of the hybrid fields of behavioral ecology and behavior genetics, although ecological genetics has developed over a longer period of time. Ecobehavioral genetic studies of traits involved in habitat selection are important for our understanding of evolutionary processes in natural populations.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Evolutionary Biology of Colonizing Species , pp. 136 - 149Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983