The stress debate: symptom of impending synthesis?

Opposition to use of the word ‘stress’ and other terms of wide ambit in ecology and evolutionary biology often signifies a commitment to programmes of detailed research and narrowed focus. This approach is justified where the objective is to analyse the demographic, genetic or biochemical mechanisms of contemporary populations. However, concepts employing ‘stress’ are vital to those forms of research that seek to obtain a broader perspective by recognizing ecological and evolutionary patterns with a high degree of repetition (sensu MacArthur, 1968 in R. C. Lewontin, Population Biology & Evolution). It is argued that there are recurrent types of evolutionary response to stress and that these provide important clues to the structure and dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Such patterns can assist our understanding of phenomena as widely divergent as the decline or expansion of populations within the British flora and fauna and the persistence of radionuclides in unproductive terrestrial ecosystems.

[1]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  Comparative Plant Ecology: A Functional Approach to Common British Species , 1989 .

[2]  T. R. E. Southwood,et al.  Tactics, strategies and templets* , 1988 .

[3]  J. P. Grime,et al.  The C-S-R model of primary plant strategies — origins, implications and tests , 1988 .

[4]  M. Hutchings,et al.  Clonal integration and plasticity in foraging behaviour in Glechoma hederacea , 1987 .

[5]  J. P. Grime,et al.  MORPHOLOGICAL PLASTICITY AND MINERAL NUTRIENT CAPTURE IN TWO HERBACEOUS SPECIES OF CONTRASTED ECOLOGY. , 1987, The New phytologist.

[6]  M. Hutchings,et al.  The effects of nutrient availability on foraging in the clonal herb Glechoma hederacea , 1987 .

[7]  The circumstances and characteristics of spoil colonization within a local flora , 1986 .

[8]  J. P. Grime,et al.  A comparative study of the influence of drought stress on flowering in Urtica dioica and U. urens. , 1986 .

[9]  Clutch size of passerines in harsh environments , 1986 .

[10]  J. Hodgson.  Commonness and rarity in plants with special reference to the Sheffield flora part II: The relative importance of climate, soils and land use , 1986 .

[11]  J. Hodgson.  Commonness and rarity in plants with special reference to the Sheffield flora Part I: The identity, distribution and habitat characteristics of the common and rare species , 1986 .

[12]  L. Boddy,et al.  Outgrowth Patterns of Mycelial Cord-forming Basidiomycetes from and between Woody Resource Units in Soil , 1986 .

[13]  F. Stuart Chapin,et al.  Resource Availability and Plant Antiherbivore Defense , 1985, Science.

[14]  P. Grubb.  Plant Populations and Vegetation in Relation to Habitat, Disturbance and Competition: Problems of Generalization , 1985 .

[15]  R. Cooke,et al.  Ecology of saprotrophic fungi , 1985 .

[16]  D. A. Ratcliffe.  POST-MEDIEVAL AND RECENT CHANGES IN BRITISH VEGETATION: THE CULMINATION OF HUMAN INFLUENCE. , 1984, The New phytologist.

[17]  C. Sydes.  A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEAF DEMOGRAPHY IN LIMESTONE GRASSLAND , 1984 .

[18]  P. Greenslade,et al.  Adversity Selection and the Habitat Templet , 1983, The American Naturalist.

[19]  P. Coley,et al.  HERBIVORY AND DEFENSIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF TREE SPECIES IN A LOWLAND TROPICAL FOREST , 1983 .

[20]  Thomas B. Starr,et al.  Hierarchy: Perspectives for Ecological Complexity , 1982 .

[21]  J. Sutcliffe.  Renewed growth of plants , 1982, Nature.

[22]  F. S. Chapin,et al.  The Mineral Nutrition of Wild Plants , 1980 .

[23]  G. Pugh.  Strategies in fungal ecology , 1980 .

[24]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes. , 1980 .

[25]  J. P. Grime,et al.  SEASONAL VARIATION IN THE SEED BANKS OF HERBACEOUS SPECIES IN TEN CONTRASTING HABITATS , 1979 .

[26]  T. Clutton‐Brock,et al.  Comparison and adaptation , 1979, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[27]  S. Gould,et al.  The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme , 1979, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[28]  R. Whittaker,et al.  Classifying Species According to Their Demographic Strategy. I. Population Fluctuations and Environmental Heterogeneity , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[29]  D. E. Gill.  On Selection at High Population Density , 1978 .

[30]  J. P. Grime,et al.  A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SHOOT PHENOLOGY AND DOMINANCE IN HERBACEOUS VEGETATION , 1977 .

[31]  J. P. Grime,et al.  Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and Its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory , 1977, The American Naturalist.

[32]  P. Calow,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RATION, REPRODUCTIVE EFFORT AND AGE-SPECIFIC MORTALITY IN THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE-HISTORY STRATEGIES-SOME OBSERVATIONS ON FRESHWATER TRICLADS , 1977 .

[33]  T. R. E. Southwood,et al.  HABITAT, THE TEMPLET FOR ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES? , 1977 .

[34]  P. Grubb.  THE MAINTENANCE OF SPECIES‐RICHNESS IN PLANT COMMUNITIES: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REGENERATION NICHE , 1977 .

[35]  P. Williamson.  Above-Ground Primary Production of Chalk Grassland Allowing for Leaf Death , 1976 .

[36]  C. B. Davis,et al.  The seed banks of prairie glacial marshes , 1976 .

[37]  M. Drew,et al.  COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF A LOCALISED SUPPLY OF PHOSPHATE, NITRATE, AMMONIUM AND POTASSIUM ON THE GROWTH OF THE SEMINAL ROOT SYSTEM, AND THE SHOOT, IN BARLEY , 1975 .

[38]  James C. Hickman,et al.  Environmental unpredictability and plastic energy allocation strategies in the annual Polygonum cascadense (Polygonaceae) , 1975 .

[39]  G. Ledyard Stebbins,et al.  Flowering Plants: Evolution Above the Species Level , 1975 .

[40]  James P. Collins,et al.  Environmental Certainty, Trophic Level, and Resource Availability in Life History Evolution , 1974, The American Naturalist.

[41]  J. P. Grime.  Vegetation classification by reference to strategies , 1974, Nature.

[42]  P. Greenslade.  EVOLUTION IN THE STAPHYLINID GENUS PRIOCHIRUS (COLEOPTERA) , 1972, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[43]  P. Greenslade.  DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS OF PRIOCHIRUS SPECIES (COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE) IN THE SOLOMON ISLANDS , 1972, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[44]  M. Mulkay,et al.  The Social Process of Innovation , 1972 .

[45]  F. Turner,et al.  The demography of the lizard, Uta stansburiana Baird and Girard, in southern Nevada , 1970 .

[46]  Harold A. Mooney,et al.  THE ECOLOGY OF ARCTIC AND ALPINE PLANTS , 1968 .

[47]  J. P. Grime,et al.  AN INVESTIGATION OF LEAF PALATABILITY USING THE SNAIL CEPAEA NEMORALIS L. , 1968 .

[48]  P. S. Lloyd,et al.  THE INFLUENCE OF SOIL CONDITIONS ON THE COURSE OF SUCCESSION ON THE CHALK OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND , 1967 .

[49]  B. Maza,et al.  Periodicity of Desert Rodent Activity , 1966, Science.

[50]  P. Bentley.  Adaptations of amphibia to arid environments. , 1966, Science.

[51]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. , 1964 .

[52]  S. M. Walters,et al.  Atlas of the British Flora , 1962 .

[53]  J. Harper,et al.  CONTROLLED INTERFERENCE WITH NATURAL POPULATIONS OF PLANTAGO LANCEOLATA, P. MAJOR AND P. MEDIA , 1961 .

[54]  M. Chadwick.  Nardus stricta L. (Ed. 11) No. 2246. List Br. Vase. Pl. No. 715.1 [Biological flora of the British Isles. , 1960 .

[55]  C. Gimingham.  Biological flora of the British Isles. Calluna Salisb. A monotypic genus. Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull. , 1960 .

[56]  A. Keast.  Australian Birds: Their Zoogeography and Adaptations to an Arid Continent , 1959 .

[57]  R. Blakelock,et al.  “The Changing Flora of Britain” , 1953, Nature.

[58]  G. Stebbins.  NATURAL SELECTION AND THE DIFFERENTIATION OF ANGIOSPERM FAMILIES , 1951 .

[59]  E. J. Kraus.  The Reproductive Capacity of Plants , 1943, Ecology.