Organism and Environment

- An authoritative graduate textbook of ecological development ('eco-devo') set in the context of diverse natural systems
- Explores how niche construction contributes to ecological interactions and evolutionary dynamics
- Includes detailed case studies showing how regulatory mechanisms lead to plastic eco-devo responses
- Ideal graduate seminar course material
Over the past decade, advances in both molecular developmental biology and evolutionary ecology have made possible a new understanding of organisms as dynamic systems interacting with their environments. This innovative book synthesizes a wealth of recent research findings to examine how environments influence phenotypic expression in individual organisms (ecological development or 'eco-devo'), and how organisms in turn alter their environments (niche construction). A key argument explored throughout Organism & Environment is that ecological interactions as well as natural selection are shaped by these dual organism-environment effects. This synthesis is particularly timely as biologists seek a unified contemporary framework in which to investigate the developmental outcomes, ecological success, and evolutionary prospects of organisms in rapidly changing environments.
Organism & Environment is an advanced text suitable for graduate level students taking seminar courses in ecology, evolution, and developmental biology, as well as academics and researchers in these fields.