On the Evolution of Ecological Parameters

Abstract

The wedding (or as W. Provine has described it, the cohabitation) of ecology and population genetics requires an integration of modes of understanding developed at very different levels of organization. Evolution may be quite appropriately viewed either in terms of changes in the phenotypic population, or of changes in frequencies of genetic units. Quite obviously, however, different questions assume importance from those different aspects. One whose primary interests lie at either of those levels may recognize that events at the other have a significant influence on processes of interest, but the detailed mechanics may seem as irrelevant as does a wiring diagram to one whose goal is to operate a television set.