Fitness and adaptation are fundamental characteristics of plant and animal species, enabling them to survive in their environment and to adapt to the inevitable changes in this environment. This is true for both the genetic resources of natural ecosystems as well as those used in agricultural production. Extensive genetic variation exists between varieties/breeds in a species and amongst individuals within breeds. This variation has developed over very long periods of time. A major ongoing challenge is how to best utilize this variation to meet short-term demands whilst also conserving it for longer-term possible use. Many animal breeding programs have led to increased performance for production traits but this has often been accompanied by reduced fitness. In addition, the global use of genetic resources prompts the question whether introduced genotypes are adapted to local production systems. Understanding the genetic nature of fitness and adaptation will enable us to better manage genetic resources allowing us to make efficient and sustainable decisions for the improvement or breeding of these resources. This book had an ambitious goal in bringing together a sample of the world’s leading scientists in animal breeding and evolutionary genetics to exchange knowledge to advance our understanding of these vital issues.

Animals and Environmental Fitness: Physiological and Biochemical Aspects of Adaptation and Ecology, Volume 2 contains the proceedings of the First Conference of the European Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry held in Liège, Belgium, on August 27-31, 1979. The papers explore the physiology and biochemistry of animal adaptation and ecology and cover topics ranging from amino acid transport and metabolism during osmotic shock to the role of organic compounds in osmoregulation in plants and animals. This volume is comprised of 89 chapters and begins with an analysis of the transport and metabolism of amino acids under osmotic stress, followed by a discussion on cell volume regulation in isolated heart ventricles from the flounder, Platichthys flesus, perfused with anisosmotic media. Subsequent chapters focus on the effects of cholinergic drugs on the osmotic fragility of erythrocytes; strategies of osmoregulation in the fiddler crab Uca pugilator; ionic regulation in the African catfish Clarias mossambicus in water and air; and environmental and endocrine factors controlling osmotic water fluxes in gills of Sarotherodon (tilapia) mossambicus. The effect of seawater adaptation on the phosphatidyl-choline metabolism in the eel is also considered, along with evaporative water loss in anuran amphibians. This book will be of value to zoologists, physiologists, biologists, and biochemists.

Across the globe, populations of plants and animals live in clusters, but maintain a connectivity a population of populations. There are naturally occurring metapopulations, such as clusters of groupers spread across coral reefs, and there are metapopulations humans have helped create by fragmenting landscapes: stands of trees separated by roads, prairies separated by agricultural farms. As the dynamics of landscape change have accelerated, and understanding of how metapopulations functions has played a critical role in ecology and evolutionary biology. Adaptation in Metapopulations synthesizes the role of genetic interactions in adaptive evolution and their influence on the effectiveness of different types of selection. Drawing on extensive field work and lab experiments, cohered with a strong conceptual arc, the work also integrates molecular and organismal biology, as Wade explores adaptation at multiple scales, and shows how evolutionary dynamics scale from the gene to the metapopulation. "

Animals and Environmental Fitness, Volume 1: Invited Lectures is a collection of papers that tackles ecological concerns. The materials of the book are organized according the main issue of their contents. The text first tackles the chemical factors of the environment, such as water and oxygen availability, ecomones, and pollutants. The other half of the book encompasses the physical factors of the environment that include light, pressure, and temperature. The text will be of great use to scientists who study the interaction between flora, fauna, and the total environment.

By focusing on the crucial role of environment in the process of adaptation, Robert Brandon clarifies definitions and principles so as to help make the argument of evolution by natural selection empirically testable. He proposes that natural selection is the process of differential reproduction resulting from differential adaptedness to a common selective environment. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Biological evolution is a fact--but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. In 1966, simple Darwinism, which holds that evolution functions primarily at the level of the individual organism, was threatened by opposing concepts such as group selection, a popular idea stating that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. George Williams's famous argument in favor of the Darwinists struck a powerful blow to those in opposing camps. His Adaptation and Natural Selection, now a classic of science literature, is a thorough and convincing essay in defense of Darwinism; its suggestions for developing effective principles for dealing with the evolution debate and its relevance to many fields outside biology ensure the timelessness of this critical work.

An enduring controversy in evolutionary biology is the genetic basis of adaptation. Darwin emphasized "many slight differences" as the ultimate source of variation to be acted upon by natural selection. In the early 1900’s, this view was opposed by "Mendelian geneticists", who emphasized the importance of "macromutations" in evolution. The Modern Synthesis resolved this controversy, concluding that mutations in genes of very small effect were responsible for adaptive evolution. A decade ago, Allen Orr and Jerry Coyne reexamined the evidence for this neo-Darwinian view and found that both the theoretical and empirical basis for it were weak. Orr and Coyne encouraged evolutionary biologists to reexamine this neglected question: what is the genetic basis of adaptive evolution? In this volume, a new generation of biologists have taken up this challenge. Using advances in both molecular genetic and statistical techniques, evolutionary geneticists have made considerable progress in this emerging field. In this volume, a diversity of examples from plant and animal studies provides valuable information for those interested in the genetics and evolution of complex traits.