Niche Construction

Niche construction is the modification by organisms of the functional relationship between themselves and their environment through an active change of one of the factors in that environment. It impacts/alters energy flows in ecosystems through ecosystem engineering. It holds that organisms modify their, and other, organisms' selective environments, creating an ecological inheritance, including modified selection pressures, for subsequent populations. Niche construction is a process, in addition to natural selection, that contributes to changes over time in the relationship between organisms and environments. Given that high social density and complexity and a tendency to actively manipulate social and ecological contexts are widespread patterns among primates, a niche construction approach can facilitate better understandings of the evolution of primate social structures and systems.