Day Rachel L, Laland Kevin N, Odling-Smee F John
Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, UK.
Perspect Biol Med. 2003 Winter;46(1):80-95. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2003.0003.
Niche construction refers to the capacity of organisms to construct, modify, and select important components of their local environments, such as nests, burrows, pupal cases, chemicals, and nutrients. A small but increasing number of evolutionary biologists regard niche construction as an evolutionary process in its own right, rather than as a mere product of natural selection. Through niche construction organisms not only influence the nature of their world, but also in part determine the selection pressures to which they and their descendants are exposed, and they do so in a non-random manner. Mathematical population genetics analyses have revealed that niche construction is likely to be evolutionarily consequential because of the feedback that it generates in the evolutionary process. A parallel movement has emerged in ecosystem ecology, where researchers stress the utility of regarding organisms as ecosystem engineers, who partly control energy and matter flows. From the niche construction standpoint, the evolving complementary match between organisms and environments is the product of reciprocal interacting processes of natural selection and niche construction. This essay reviews the arguments put forward in favor of the niche-construction perspective.
生态位构建是指生物体构建、改变和选择其局部环境中重要组成部分的能力，如巢穴、洞穴、蛹壳、化学物质和养分。越来越多的进化生物学家认为生态位构建本身就是一个进化过程，而不仅仅是自然选择的产物。通过生态位构建，生物体不仅影响其生存世界的本质，还在一定程度上决定了它们及其后代所面临的选择压力，而且它们是以非随机的方式做到这一点的。数学种群遗传学分析表明，由于生态位构建在进化过程中产生的反馈，它很可能在进化上具有重要意义。在生态系统生态学中也出现了类似的趋势，研究人员强调将生物体视为部分控制能量和物质流动的生态系统工程师的作用。从生态位构建的角度来看，生物体与环境之间不断演变的互补匹配是自然选择和生态位构建相互作用过程的产物。本文回顾了支持生态位构建观点的论据。
