Ecological refugium

An Ecological refugium is what is in colloquial German often understood by ecological niche.

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Examples

• The once abundant reptiles are now driven out by mammals, so they only survive in ecological refugia.
• The once abundant ferns and lycopodium species now only survive in some ecological refugia.

Cope's rule

Cope's rule is the Size Rule applied to biological objects. It was first observed in the fossile record [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/DXH2C2PU" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . Although named after Cope, he never actually stated that rule.

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Rational

Evolution favors larger in size individuals because those are better in competition and to resist predictors. This holds but for the most advanced species at any given time in evolution.

Examples

• It can be observed in marine animals [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/Z94E73E6" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] .
• Among placental mammals body size increased independently [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/XZWWHA4T" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] .
• Also observed among Dinosaurs at their time [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/35I685IE" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)]

Discussion

Though this rule holds in many clades it is not true in all of them. For instance reptiles rather shrink in size since dinosaurs got extinct. This is perfectly explicable by Fauceir Evolution Theory. As mammals are the more advanced species they drive out the former dominating reptiles from their habitat. Reptiles have to retreat to smaller ecological vacancies where they are still compatible competitive. The remaining ecological refugia are small and therefore they have to shrink in size.

Conclusively Cope's Rule is valid only among the most advanced in evolution species.

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Ecological license

Ecological license is a term coined by German biologists Günther and Osche [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/492CK72J" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] which is rarely used in international ecological literature.

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The German wikipedia entry compares this license to a job vacancy that can be occupied by an applicant with the required skills. In analogy, an ecological license is an ecological vacancy that can be occupied by a species that has the required adaptations.

Examples

• Shade-loving plant have a license to grow underneath big trees that develop thick canopies.
• Some fresh water fish has no license to thrive in sea water

Discussion

Osche took this term from Günther and explained it in more detail in his book [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/ZBXZURFB" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . This usage of the term is somehow equivalent to the term 'niche' as it was used in its first publication [Error: Wrong macro arguments: "http://zotero.org/users/438144/items/ZUED9ZW3" for macro 'ref' (maybe wrong macro tag syntax?)] . Unfortunately the term 'niche' drifted from a mere ecological description of environmental factors at a given location.

As niche became a term describing the environmental interactions a term was needed to describe the environmental perspective, the resources provided for a specific species to accommodate. As the term niche is used in German colloquial language in exactly the same sense as ecological license, some ambiguity may arise, and as a German speaking person one feels the need for a term that describes the environmental perspective. That probably was Osche's and Günther's motivation to introduce ecologic license.

Fauceir Theory can resolve this problem by simply applying the master slave relationship in which the environment is the master and the population is the slave. With such a concept ecological license is the pressure exerted by the master and niche construction pointing in the opposite direction.

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