Nonadaptive Selection

John Damuth (1952–2024) was a senior research scientist in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lev R. Ginzburg is professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University. Among his books are the coauthored How Species Interact: Altering the Standard View on Trophic Ecology and Ecological Orbits: How Planets Move and Populations Grow.

• In Memoriam: John DamuthPrefaceChapter 1. Selection Processes and Multispecies Systems1.1. Prologue: Nonadaptive Selection1.2. An Example: Why Food Chains Are Short1.3. Goals at the Macroscale1.4. The Problem of Extrapolation: Why Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Need Selective Processes in Addition to Natural Selection1.5. The Macroscale1.6. Nonadaptive Selection as a SolutionChapter 2. Two Examples: Network Motifs and Damuth’s Law2.1. From Mechanisms to Patterns to Laws2.2. Stability of Modules in Food Webs: Network Motifs2.3. Selective Local Extinction and the Allometries of Energy and Abundance: Damuth’s LawChapter 3. Nonadaptive Selection: How It Works3.1. Nonadaptive Selection Is Distinct, Multifaceted, and Already Embedded in Evolutionary Theory3.2. Nonadaptive Selection Processes: Do They Generate Laws of Nature?3.3. The Properties of Macroscale Multispecies Systems3.4. SummaryChapter 4. Nonadaptive Selection at the Level of Single Species4.1. Fisher’s Principle: The Maintenance of Even Sex Ratios4.2. Nonadaptive Selection Explanation of Heterozygote Fitness SuperiorityChapter 5. Nonadaptive Selection Explains the Size Scaling of Lifespans5.1. Introduction: The Problem of Lifespan Scaling5.2. Traditional Explanations5.3. Physiology and Ecology Interact to Provide a Causal Explanation via Nonadaptive SelectionChapter 6. Ecological Allometries, Nonadaptive Selection, and the Coordination of Powers6.1. What Do Ecological Allometries Mean?6.2. The Coordination of Ecological and Metabolic Power LawsChapter 7. Nonadaptive Selection in Multispecies Interaction Networks7.1. Introduction: Observed, Lawlike Regularities in Multispecies Interactions Are the Result of Nonadaptive Selection7.2. Consumer Interference7.3. How Nonadaptive Selection Explains Short Trophic Chains7.4. Qualitatively Stable Structures, Triangular Matrices, and Asymmetry of Interaction Strengths7.5. Nonadaptive Selection and Predators Larger Than Their PreyChapter 8. Macroevolution: The Role of Nonadaptive Selection among Species8.1. Introduction8.2. Species Selection8.3. Elevated Extinction Rates for Large Hypercarnivores8.4. Outlook for Selection-Based Macroevolutionary Explanations and LawsChapter 9. Summary and Perspective9.1. Life Elsewhere in the Universe9.2. The Origin of Adaptation and the Zero-Force Law9.3. Populating of the Biosphere with Stable Structures9.4. ConclusionChapter 10. Appendices10.1. Introduction to Allometry (Power Laws)10.2. Qualitative Stability Conditions10.3. Allometry and Energy Equivalence (Damuth’s Law)10.4. The Price Equation10.5. Kepler’s Planetary Allometry10.6. Selection Analyses, Multilevel Selection, and Adaptation10.7. Selection without Adaptation: A 2,300-Year History10.8. Selection and Adaptation outside of Biology10.9. Theories, Laws, and Models as Contemporary Philosophy Sees Them10.10. Heterozygote Fitness Advantage10.11. Models of Single-Species Population Growth10.12. Community Interaction Networks, Asymmetry, and QSS10.13. Species Selection10.14. What Nonadaptive Selection Is NotAcknowledgmentsNotesReferencesIndex

"Damuth and Ginzburg have put their finger on an important class of phenomena generating broadscale patterns in ecology and evolution. Ecological and evolutionary theory searches for the stable equilibria of models depicting the dynamical flows and interaction mechanisms among entities in communities, ecosystems, and clades, because systems should be continually pushed toward or be at these values. Their great contribution is in recognizing that seeking stability in these mechanisms should reveal inherent patterning across systems that is independent of specific differences in environmental conditions."