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Beeby & Brennan: First Ecology - Ecological Principles and Environmental Issues 3e

3. Evolution by natural selection

Principles of natural selection

Case study 3a - Units of selection

  1. Section 1.2 - basic explanation of the theory of evolution by natural selection

  2. Box 1.3 - the chemical basis of the genetic code and its replication

  3. Box 1.4 - units of selection and the significance of replicators

  4. Section 1.5 - rates of evolution and speciation

  5. Section 2.6 - speciation in plants and animals


Case study 3b - The costs and benefits of sexual reproduction

  1. Section 1.4 - sources of variation in the genetic code

  2. Section 1.3 - the circumstances under which genetic variation may confer a selective advantage

  3. Section 2.3 - sub-section on the biological species concept - sexual and asexual forms within the same species

  4. Section 2.5 - speciation and especially the role of sexual selection

  5. Box 3.3 - balancing the risks of sexual reproduction in an unpredictable environment


Selection in other contexts

Case study 3c - The evolution of communities and their integration

  1. Section 8.1 - sub-section on hierarchy theory - the regulation of large and complex systems

  2. Section 5.2 - sub-section on defining communities - their composition, integration and predictability

  3. Section 9.3 - functional redundancy, compartmentation and models of species interactions