The Evolution of Stability in Marine Environments Natural Selection at the Level of the Ecosystem

Abstract

Stable tropical ecosystems are regarded as mature in the evolutionary sense; unstable, oscillating systems of the higher latitudes as immature and in process of evolution towards greater stability. This process demands the selection of characters which are of survival value to the system rather than (in the first place) to the species, such as slower growth rate, longer rather than shorter time to reach sexual maturity, winter spawning and reduced reproductive rate. Examples of all these phenomena, some of which have been difficult to explain in terms of classical selection, are given. Competition in this process operates between ecosystems, not between individuals or specific populations.