TY - JOUR AU - Power, Daniel A. AU - Watson, Richard A. AU - Szathmáry, Eörs AU - Mills, Rob AU - Powers, Simon T. AU - Doncaster, C. Patrick AU - Czapp, BłaŻej PY - 2015 DA - 2015/12/08 TI - What can ecosystems learn? Expanding evolutionary ecology with learning theory JO - Biology Direct SP - 69 VL - 10 IS - 1 AB - The structure and organisation of ecological interactions within an ecosystem is modified by the evolution and coevolution of the individual species it contains. Understanding how historical conditions have shaped this architecture is vital for understanding system responses to change at scales from the microbial upwards. However, in the absence of a group selection process, the collective behaviours and ecosystem functions exhibited by the whole community cannot be organised or adapted in a Darwinian sense. A long-standing open question thus persists: Are there alternative organising principles that enable us to understand and predict how the coevolution of the component species creates and maintains complex collective behaviours exhibited by the ecosystem as a whole? SN - 1745-6150 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13062-015-0094-1 DO - 10.1186/s13062-015-0094-1 ID - Power2015 ER -