All organisms modify their local environments to some degree. For instance, many animals manufacture nests, burrows, holes, webs, and pupal cases. Plants create shade, influence wind speeds, change atmospheric gases, and modify nutrient cycles. Fungi decompose organic matter. Even tiny bacteria fix nutrients and excrete compounds that alter environmental conditions. These activities can affect evolution.
The emperor penguin example highlights how organisms in part create the environmental conditions that they experience, and that shape their evolution.
Other well-studied examples of niche construction with evolutionary consequences are described in the below slideshow:
The emperor penguin example highlights how organisms in part create the environmental conditions that they experience, and that shape their evolution.
Other well-studied examples of niche construction with evolutionary consequences are described below:
Soil processing by earthworms. Despite living on land for millions of years, earthworms still have the physiology of the freshwater species from which they evolved. Earthworms process soil in ways that allow them to draw water into their bodies more effectively, thereby creating a simulated aquatic environment on land (Turner, 2000).
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Shell modification by hermit crabs. Hermit crabs modify their shells to increase the shell’s size and reduce its weight. As they grow they need larger shells. This creates a biological market and has led to the evolution of social dependence (Laidre, 2012).
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Flammability in chaparrals and pines. Some trees increase the frequency of forest fires through shedding highly flammable needles, cones, seeds and oils onto the forest floor. This activity is thought to be an adaptation that benefits the trees but damages their competitors. The trees have evolved fire resistance, rapid resprouting after fire, and often require fire to reproduce (Schwilk, 2003).
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Germination time in plants. The timing of germination and flowering are niche-constructing traits as they determine the seasonal environment experienced by the plants and their offspring subsequently. This alters phenotypic expression of many plant traits, the expression of genetic variation of those traits, and natural selection on those traits (Donohue, 2013).
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Ecological inheritance in dung beetles. Dung beetles manufacture and bury a brood ball of dung and insert into it a faecal pedestal onto which they lay an egg. In this way they provide a safe home, food supply and microbiome for their developing young (Schwab et al 2016).
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Experiential niche construction in plant leaves. (Sultan’s example of leaf shape changing).
Soil production by snails. In order to consume endolithic lichens, Euchondrus snails break up rocks and inadvertently generates tonnes of soil, thereby playing a vital role in desert ecosystems (Jones & Shachak 1990).
Niche construction drives coevolutionary Experimental studies demonstrate how, through their niche construction – in this case, the modification of fruit – the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae attracts Drosophila, and facilitates its own spread (Buser et al 2014)
Humans are champion niche constructors. Through agriculture, deforestation, urbanization, control of fire, and the domestication of plants and animals, humans have modified environments in dramatic ways, even on a global scale. The domestication of cattle and consumption of dairy products is a compelling example of human cultural niche construction, which has selected for alleles for adult lactose absorption in some human populations (Gerbault et al, 2011).
The evolution of niche construction. Niche construction theory has been primarily focused on the evolutionary and ecological consequences of niche construction, but biologists also explore the evolution of niche construction. Experimental studies with bacteria demonstrate that niche construction evolves rapidly, under a broad range of conditions (Callahan et al 2014)
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Further examples of niche construction, spanning a broad range of taxa, are collated in Odling-Smee et al (2003) and Sultan (2015), whilst Erwin (2008) provides examples of how niche construction and ecological inheritance have had macroevolutionary consequences.