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General

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Evolutionary Ecology lies at the intersection of ecology and evolutionary biology. It approaches the study of ecology in a way that explicitly considers the evolutionary histories of species and the interactions between them. Conversely, it can be seen as an approach to the study of evolution that incorporates an understanding of the interactions between the species under consideration. The main subfields of evolutionary ecology are life history evolutionsociobiology (the evolution of social behavior), the evolution of inter specific relations (cooperationpredator–prey interactionsparasitismmutualism) and the evolution of biodiversity and of communities.

Evolutionary Ecology mostly considers two things:

1.how interactions (among species and between species and their physical environment) shape species through selection and adaptation.

2.consequences of the resulting evolutionary

Ecological genetics

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Ecological genetics tie into evolutionary ecology through the study of how traits evolve in natural populations[1]. Ecologists are concerned with how the environment and timeframe leads to genes becoming dominant. Organisms must continually adapt in order to survive in natural habitats. Genes define which organisms survive and which will die out. When organisms develop different genetic variations, even though they stem from the same species, it is known as polymorphism[2]. Organisms that pass on beneficial genes continue to evolve their species to have an advantage inside of their niche.

Biomes

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Biomes are environments which house a variety of plants and animals that have adapted to the rainfall and temperature natural to said environment[3]. There are eight main biomes: tropical forests, savannas, deserts, grasslands, temperate forests, mediterranean, coniferous forests, and tundras. Each biome has different organisms present that have adapted to the environment so as to retain their niche. Niches are the home inside of the environment that define an organism’s role. Different organisms have different niches based upon their diet, adaptations to the environment, and place inside of the food chain[4]. The organisms that reside within the biome are defined as the fauna of the biome[5].

processes on populations, communities and ecosystems.

The Tangled Nature model of Evolutionary Ecology

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The tangled nature model provides different methods for demonstrating and predicting trends in evolutionary ecology. The model analyzes an individual prone to mutation within a population as well as other factors such as extinction rate[6]. The model was developed by Simon Laird, Daniel Lawson, and Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen of the Imperial College London in 2002. The purpose of the model is to create a simple and logical ecological model based on observation. The model is designed such that ecological effects can be accounted for when determining form, and fitness of a population.

Color variation in cichlid fish

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The effects of evolutionary ecology and its consequences can be seen in the case of color variation among African cichlid fish. With over 2,000 species, cichlid fishes are very species-rich and capable of complex social interactions [7]. Polychromatism, the variation of color patterns within a population, occurs within cichlid fishes due to environmental adaptations and to increase chances of sexual reproduction [8]

  1. ^ "Ecological Genetics". Wiley. September 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  2. ^ "Polymorphism". biology online. December 6, 2008. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  3. ^ "Terrestrial Biomes". The nature education. 2010. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  4. ^ "Fauna". Annenberg learner. 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  5. ^ "Ecological Genetics". Merriam-Webster. 1771. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  6. ^ Laird, Simon, "The Tangled Nature Model of Evolutionary Ecology: An Overview.", Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems, Volume II, pp. 49–62, doi:10.1007/978-0-8176-4556-4_5
  7. ^ "Functional diversity in the color vision of cichlid fishes". BMC Biology, BioMed Central. October 28, 2010. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  8. ^ "Evolution of colour patterns in East African cichlid fish". Blackwell Publishing Ltd. December 25, 2001. Retrieved November 4, 2017.