Ecomorphology
Ecomorphology or ecological morphology is the study of the relationship between the
Current ecomorphological research focuses on a functional approach and application to the science. A broadening of this field welcomes further research in the debate regarding differences between both the ecological and morphological makeup of an organism.
Development of ecomorphology
The roots of ecomorphology date back to the late 19th century.
Ecomorphology
Ecomorphology and functional morphology
Functional morphology differs from ecomorphology in that it deals with the features arising from form at varying levels of organisation.[8] Ecomorphology, on the other hand, refers to those features which can be shown to derive from the ecology surrounding the species. In other words, functional morphology focuses heavily on the relationship between form and function whereas ecomorphology is interested in the form and the influences from which it arises. Functional morphology studies often investigate relationships between the form of Skeletal muscle and physical properties such as force generation and joint mobility.[9] This means that functional morphology experiments may be done under laboratory conditions whereas ecomorphological experiments may not. Moreover, studies of functional morphology themselves provide insufficient data upon which to make conclusions regarding environmental adaptations of a species. The data provided from these studies can, however, support and enrich the understanding of a species' ecomorphological adaptations.[3] For instance, the relationship between the organization of the jaw lever-arm system, mouth size, and jaw muscle force generation and the feeding behaviour of sunfish has been investigated.[10] Work of this variety lends scientific support to seemingly intuitive concepts. For instance, increases in mouth size correspond to an increase in prey size. However, less obvious trends also exist. The prey-size of fish does not seem to correlate so much to body size as to the characteristics of the feeding apparatus.
Behavioural studies
The work above is just one example of an ecomorphology based behavioural study. Studies of this variety are becoming increasingly important in the field. Behavioural studies interrelate functional and eco-morphology. Features such as
Other current work within ecomorphology focuses on broadening the knowledge base to allow for ecomorphological studies to incorporate a wider range of habitats, taxa, and systems. Much current work also focuses on the integration of ecomorphology with other comparative fields such as phylogenetics and ontogenetics to better understand evolutionary morphology.[15]
Applications of ecomorphology
An understanding of ecomorphology is necessary when investigating both the origins of and reasons for
Paleohabitat determination from ecomorphology
The history of how a species has undergone morphological adaptations to better suit its ecological role can be used to draw conclusions about its
Evolutionary morphology
The study of evolutionary morphology concerns changes in species morphology over time in order to become better suited to their environment.[3][16] These studies are conducted by comparing the features of species groups to provide a historical narrative of the changes in morphology observed with changes in habitat. A background history of a species features and homology must first be known before a history of evolutionary morphology can be observed. This area of biology serves only to provide a nominal explanation of evolutionary biology, as a more in depth explanation of species history is required to provide a thorough explanation of evolution within a species.
Ecomorphology versus habitat preference
Suggestions have been made that the correlations between species biodiversity and particular environments may not necessarily be due to ecomorphology, but rather a conscious decision made by species to relocate to an ecosystem to which their morphologies are better suited. However, there are currently no studies that provide concrete evidence to support this theory. Studies have been conducted to predict fish habitat preference based on body morphology, but no definitive distinction could be made between correlation and causation of fish habitat preference.[20]
References
- ^ "Ecomorphology". About.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
- ^ Norton, Stephen. "The role of ecomorphological studies in the comparative biology of fishes" (PDF). University of South Florida.
- ^ a b c Bock, W. J. 1994. Concepts and methods in ecomorphology. Journal of Biosciences 19:403–413. [1]
- ^ Beer, G. 1954. Archaeopteryx and evolution. The Advancement of Science 11: 160–170. [2]
- ^ Karr, J.R. and James, F.C. 1975. Eco-morphological configurations and convergent evolution of species and communities; in Ecology and Evolution of Communities (eds). M.L. Cody and J.M. Diamond. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 258–291
- ^ Bock, W. 1977. Toward an ecological morphology. Vogelwarte 29: 127–135
- ^ Leisler, B. 1977. Morphological Aspects of Ecological Specializations in Bird Genera. American Zoologist 19(3): 1014–1014.[3]
- ^ Bock, W. Van Walhert, J. 1965. The role of adaptive mechanisms in the origin of higher levels of organisation. Systematic Biology 14(4): 272–287. [4][dead link]
- ^ Bock, W., G. Lanzavecchia, and R. Valvassori. 1991. Levels of complexity and organismal organization. Selected Symposia and Monographs UZI. Vol 5 181–212. [5]
- JSTOR 2265531.
- ^ Moermond, T., and J. Denslow. 1983. Fruit choice in neotropical birds: effects of fruit type and accessibility on selectivity. The Journal of Animal Ecology 52(2): 407–420. [6]
- ^ Sibbing, F., L. Nagelkerke, and J. Osse. 1994. Ecomorphology as a tool in fisheries-Identification and ecotyping of Lake Tana Barbs (Barbus-Intermedius COmplex), Ethiopia. Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 42:77–85. Royal Netherlands Soc Agr Sci.[7]
- ^ Griffen, B. D., and H. Mosblack. 2011. Predicting diet and consumption rate differences between and within species using gut ecomorphology. The Journal of animal ecology 80:854–63.[8]
- ^ Goodman, B. A., and P. T. J. Johnson. 2011. Ecomorphology and disease: cryptic effects of parasitism on host habitat use, thermoregulation, and predator avoidance. Ecology 92:542–548.[9]
- ^ a b c Norton, S. F., J. J. Luczkovich, and P. J. Motta. 1995. The role of ecomorphological studies in the comparative biology of fishes. Environmental Biology of Fishes 44:287–304.[10]
- ^ .
- ^ Fryer, G. T. and Iles, T. D. The cichlid fishes of the great lakes of Africa: their biology and evolution. 1972. Oliver and Boyd, Cornell University.[11]
- ^ a b Scott, R. S., and W. A. Barr. 2014. Ecomorphology and phylogenetic risk: Implications for habitat reconstruction using fossil bovids. Journal of human evolution 73:47–57 [12]
- ^ Plummer, T. W., Bishop, L. C., Hertel, F. 2008. Habitat preference of extant African bovids based on astragalus morphology: operationalizing ecomorphology for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(11): 3016–3027 [13]
- ^ Chan, M. D. 2001. Fish ecomorphology: predicting habitat preferences of stream fishes from their body shape. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.[14]
Betz, O. (2006), Ecomorphology: Integration of form, function, and ecology in the analysis of morphological structures, Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Angewandte Entomologie 15, 409-416.