Evolution in Changing Environments: Some Theoretical Explorations

Monographs in Population Biology #2

by Richard Levins

Professor Levins, one of the leading explorers in the field of integrated population biology, considers the mutual interpenetration and joint evolution of organism and environment, occurring on several levels at once. Physiological and behavioral adaptations to short-term fluctuations of the environment condition the responses of populations to long-term changes and geographic gradients. These in turn affect the way species divide the environments among themselves in communities, and, therefore, the numbers of species which can coexist. Environment is treated here abstractly as patchiness, variability, range, etc. Populations are studied in their local heterogeneity, geographic variability, faunistic diversity, etc.

Genres: Science, Evolution

132 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1968

Reviews

[Rodrigo Medel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important works ever written in ecology and evolution. After reading this masterpiece, one realizes that most of contemporaneous advances in evolutionary ecology are simple variations on a major theme played by Richard Levins in the sixties.

[Rohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense but brilliant. Based on a series of lectures delivered in Cuba (!) in the '60s, this monograph is essential reading for researchers interested in this topic.

[Ann]

This monograph consists of a series of lectures given by Levins in 1965 to the Institute of Biology of the Cuban Academy of Science and the Department of Biology at Yale University. Here Levins does an excellent job of bringing together the, then current, understanding of how ecology and geno/phenotypes interface with evolution. Levins goes into some detail with the mathematics which he supports with simple plots of models of fitness sets. Despite being dated, I found this work to be helpful in considering how the different ecological and genetic parameters of species are interacting. If you are not up on your mathematical models, ecology or evolution, this might be a tough read but well worth the effort.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, with many useful insights amongst its few pages.