Ecosystem consequences of behavioural plasticity and contemporary evolution
Ecosystem consequences of behavioural plasticity and contemporary evolution
This chapter explores the role of animal behaviour as a critical link between human activity and ecosystem processes. It explores the impacts of behavioural trait changes on ecosystems, and describes how these effects are often the result of changes in traits related to consumption and nutrient cycling. It enumerates two mechanisms of rapid behavioural trait change that shape ecosystem processes: phenotypic plasticity and contemporary evolution, and considers their effects. It proposes a framework to integrate the ecosystem effects of plasticity and evolution using a reaction norm approach to parse the contributions of plasticity, evolution, and the evolution of plasticity to ecosystem change. It also suggests using the framework to predict the effects of human-driven trait change on ecosystems.
Keywords: animal behaviour, human activity, ecosystem processes, behavioural trait changes, nutrient cycling, phenotypic plasticity, contemporary evolution, reaction norm
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