Ecological genetics is a field of biology at the intersection of genetics, ecology, and evolution that emerged during the early 1930s in Britain and is particularly associated with the research of E. B. Ford, H. B. D. Kettlewell, A. J. Cain, P. M. Sheppard, C. A. Clarke, and their numerous intellectual descendants (Fig. 35.1). Ford (1964, xi), the self-identified inventor of the field, defined it as “the experimental study of evolution and adaptation, carried out by means of combined field-work and laboratory genetics.” It is devoted to the study of the genetics of adaptations, that is, traits affecting survival and reproduction, and the ecological processes that affect the distribution and evolution of these genes in natural populations.

Connection to Darwin

There is an obvious sense in which Charles Darwin is the progenitor of the modern biological field known as ecological genetics. Darwin’s Origin of Species drew attention to the ubiquitous presence of heritable variation in nature, the power of natural selection as an explanatory agent in accounting for the origin and maintenance of biological adaptations, and the importance of studying living organisms by means of biogeographical patterns of distribution. Darwin was also an early and important pioneer and advocate of the systematic use of experimental methods in the study of natural history. Ecological geneticists certainly see themselves as intellectual descendants of Darwin in that they often position their work as providing experimental confirmation of his theory of evolution by natural selection.