[The nature of adaptive evolutionary changes: fitness and potential].
Ecological potential of an individual can be defined as its viability in the broad sense including the ability to reproduce in various environments. From the biological viewpoint, ecological potential as a fundamental property of an organism is more important than fitness in the genetic sense, which is estimated as the relative rate of reproduction. In essence, fitness reflects the level of implementation of the biological potential. In the process of evolution, regulatory selection results in an increase of fitness: selected forms reproduce more successfully as the population size increases. By contrast, individuals with high ecological potential are more advantageous when the population size decreases, because the probability of their survival in adverse environments is high. Thus, high levels of fitness and ecological potential are achieved via operation of different types of selection.
Sukhodolets
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State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Moscow, Russia.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D012641:Selection, Genetic