Gould argues that the primary evolutionary value of heterochrony may lie in immediate ecological advantages for slow or rapid maturation, rather than in long-term changes of form, as all previous theories proclaimed.
Conifers have an immense ecological and economical value such as practical forestry economics, immediate ecological value of forest ecosystems and in the long term, large capacity for carbon sequestration.
In addition to genetic erosion, the elimination of F. vesiculosus populations is likely to have other immediate ecological consequences.
In addition to their immediate ecological effects, they can also be important selective agents, with the potential to drive contemporary phenotypic change in native prey/harvested species (Palumbi 2001; Hendry et al. 2008; Darimont et al. 2009).
Immediate ecological assessments showed that woodland and ancient trees survived much better than expected, with tree loss nowhere near the scale of previous powerful storms.
Immediate ecological momentary assessment using patient exit cards was acceptable to patients and providers in a large sample of clinical practices, with high response rates (86% of patients were willing to complete the cards).
Even if the relationships we observed between laboratory-observed resistance and field survival rates turn out to be limited to seedling and sapling stages, current models (Cobb et al. 2012) suggest that these may have an important, immediate ecological impact.
The LGT, more than any other genetic process, makes possible faster ecological changes with the immediate incorporation of a gene or group of genes [ 31].
Environmental or geological changes can create new niches that drive ecological species divergence without the immediate cessation of gene flow.
A significant example for ecological systems is the species composition that partially informs on the immediate potential of the system to recover after disturbance.
