Professor Parsons uses the colonizing species as a case study in the dynamics of microevolution at work in living systems. The colonizing species, a lie, and potentially disruptive force in a 'naive' habitat, is studied primarily as an ecological phenotype and more generally as an ecological behavioural phenotype. Conventional life-history traits and components of fitness, can be incorporated into these phenotypes. Integrating genetic change, natural selection, and the interaction of the species with its environment and other living systems therein, the colonizing species is transformed into...

Most natural populations experience extremely stressful conditions. This book discusses how such conditions can cause periods of intense selection that increase both phenotypic and genetic variation, and allow organisms with novel characteristics to be first generated and then established in the population. Using evidence from the fossil record, the authors argue that stressful conditions can have a major impact on the environments. They also suggest that as a consequence, periods of stress must be taken into consideration when long term conservation strategies are planned, particularly as...