Q Rev Biol. 2014 Dec;89(4):285-318. doi: 10.1086/678567.
For almost 40 years, studies of whole-organism performance have formed a cornerstone of evolutionary physiology. Although its utility as a heuristic guide is beyond question, and we have learned much about morphological evolution from its application, the ecomorphological paradigm has frequently been applied to performance evolution in ways that range from unsatisfactory to inappropriate. More importantly, the standard ecomorphological paradigm does not account for tradeoffs among performance and other traits, nor between performance traits that are mediated by resource allocation. A revised paradigm that includes such tradeoffs, and the possible ways that performance and fitness-enhancing traits might affect each other, could potentially revivify the study of phenotypic evolution and make important inroads into understanding the relationships between morphology and performance and between performance and Darwinian fitness. We describe such a paradigm, and discuss the various ways that performance and key life-history traits might interact with and affect each other. We emphasize both the proximate mechanisms potentially linking such traits, and the likely ultimate factors driving those linkages, as well as the evolutionary implications for the overall, multivariate phenotype. Finally, we highlight several research directions that will shed light on the evolution and ecology of whole-organism performance and related life-history traits.
近 40 年来，整体生物表现的研究一直是进化生理学的基石。尽管其作为启发式指导的效用毋庸置疑，并且我们已经从其应用中了解了很多关于形态进化的知识，但生态形态学范式在应用于性能进化时，从不尽如人意到不适用的情况都有。更重要的是，标准的生态形态学范式没有考虑到性能和其他特征之间的权衡，也没有考虑到通过资源分配来调节的性能特征之间的权衡。一个包含这些权衡的修正范式，以及性能和增强适应性特征可能相互影响的各种方式，有可能使表型进化的研究重新活跃起来，并深入了解形态与性能之间以及性能与达尔文适应度之间的关系。我们描述了这样一个范式，并讨论了性能和关键生活史特征可能相互作用和影响的各种方式。我们强调了潜在地将这些特征联系起来的近因机制，以及驱动这些联系的可能的终极因素，以及对整体多变量表型的进化意义。最后，我们强调了几个研究方向，这些方向将阐明整体生物表现和相关生活史特征的进化和生态学。
