(Solved) If ecosystems are capable of evolving, is this a form of Darwinian Evolution?

Ashmo

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13 years ago

If ecosystems are capable of evolving, is this a form of Darwinian Evolution?

Some biologists have suggested that ecosystems are emergent “living” systems capable of evolving. One manifestations of this idea is environmentalist James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which views Earth itself as a living, homeostatic entity- a kind of superorganism. Use the principles of evolution you have learned in the text to critique the idea that ecosystems and the biosphere can evolve. If ecosystems are capable of evolving, is this a form of Darwinian Evolution? Why or why not?

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bio_man

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Educator

13 years ago

Ecosystems can evolve through both micro and macroevolution. Each ecosystem is somewhat separated from each other, for example, the tropic ecosystem in South America is separate from that in Africa. Each ecosystem comprises its own diversity of animals and plants. Microevolution involves natural selection, sexual selection, artificial selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. This happens in every ecosystem and this eventually leads to allele frequency changes and as a result, changes in the population. Let's take for example, genetic drift. Genetic drift is a change in the gene pool of a population due to chance. In other words, it is partly chance that affects which plants reproduce. Only the alleles of organisms that successfully reproduce in one generation appear in the gene pool of the next generation. This phenomenon happens in different species in different ecosystems and this eventually leads to changes in separate ecosystems - evolution.

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duddy

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padre

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13 years ago

It's important to remember that ecosystems and biosphere can change overtime. The true heart of Darwinian evolution contradicts the prerequisites of an independent evolution of a truly intelligent ecosystem. A rule in biology is that the larger the variety of species in the ecosystem, the more biologically developed the ecosystem is!! The fundamental principle of the evolution of ecosystems may be viewed as "problem solving" in respect of problems arising during the spatial time course of the ecosystem, i.e., species competition, cooperation, fitness, adaptation of species with their ecosystem, mutations etc. These problems are partly solved by the ecosystem itself & partly by the members of the ecosystem. So the solution is sometimes far from the ideal.

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