The Ecology Book

188

ORGANISMS CHANGE AND

CONSTRUCT THE WORLD

IN WHICH THEY LIVE

NICHE CONSTRUCTION

A

ll organisms alter the

environment to cater to

their own needs. Animals

dig burrows, build nests, create

shade from the sun, and create

shelter from the wind to provide a

more secure environment, while

plants alter soil chemistry and cycle

nutrients. When organisms modify

their own and each other’s place

in the environment, this is “niche

construction”—a term coined

by British evolutionary biologist

F. John Odling-Smee in 1988.

American evolutionary biologist

Richard Lewontin had previously

suggested that animals are not

passive victims of natural selection.

He argued that they actively

construct and modify their

environment, and affect their own

evolution in the process: the lynx

and the hare, for example, shape

each other's evolution and shared

environment by striving to outrun

each other. Odling-Smee similarly

argued that niche construction and

“ecological inheritance”—when

inherited resources and conditions

such as altered soil chemistry are

passed on to descendants—should

be seen as evolutionary processes.

Levels of construction

Some common examples of niche

construction are obvious, while

others operate at a microscopic

scale. Beavers build impressive

dams across rivers, creating lakes

and altering river courses. This

alters the composition of the water

and materials carried downstream,

creates new habitats for other

organisms to take advantage of,

and also changes the composition

of the river’s plant and animal

communities. British biologist

Kevin Laland has suggested that,

while a beaver’s dam is clearly of

great evolutionary and ecological

importance, the impact of its dung

may also be significant.

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURE

F. John Odling-Smee

(1935 –)

BEFORE

1969 British biologist Conrad

Waddington writes about

ways in which animals change

their environments, calling

this “the exploitive system.”

1983 Richard Lewontin, an

American biologist, argues

that organisms are active

constructors of their own

environments, in Gene,

Organism, and Environment.

AFTER

2014 Canadian ecologist Blake

Matthews outlines criteria for

deciding whether an organism

is a niche constructor. Hares do not sit around

constructing lynxes! But

in the most important

sense, they do.

Richard Lewontin

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