Ontogeny, Ecology and the History of Life on Earth - Comparative, Pluralistic Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

The control of ecology through development in animals is the theme of this Special Issue. Habitat, food, and social interaction are recast in an ecological lifespan perspective as active interactions between an organism and its environment rather than as drivers of conflict. In contrast, a traditional and still-influential view, brought about by Leigh Van Valen, portrays organisms as essentially genetically driven and environmentally responsive (Van Valen's "control of development by ecology").

This Special Issue presents both theory and empirical results. The empirical results serve as examples of ecological interactions involving animals of pre-adult ages. For example, one of the key life history stages of coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch, an anadromous fish species of the North Pacific Rim, is the freshwater juvenile period. Fisheries scientists have long recognized the importance of early life histories in stock productivity. More recently, ecologists have recognized that ecological ideas and processes do not concern just adults.

The life history ecology, habitat ecology, foraging and food-gathering ecology, and social ecology of immature and developing animals are the supporting themes of this special issue. The biology of active animal–environment interaction is a key focus. The term "agency" is frequently used to describe interactions of this general sort. Play behavior enters this picture as a source of behavioral plasticity, flexibility, creativity, and novelty, driving longer-term phylogenetic change. The ecology of such play behavior is a pervasive keynote of this Special Issue.

This view of the history of life on Earth serves to complement (and not contradict) key insights offered by comparative psychology and cognitive science. Synthetically, these separate fields are expected to yield novel insights into the manifold designs that emerge from active interactions between organisms and the environment.

Dr. Robert M. Fagen
Guest Editor

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• agency
• development
• early life history
• ethology
• foraging
• habitat
• ontogeny
• phylogeny
• play
• social behavior