Artificial selection has been practiced for centuries to shape the properties of individual organisms, providing Darwin with a pow- erful argument for his theory of natural selection. We show that the properties of whole ecosystems can also be shaped by artificial selection procedures. Ecosystems initiated in the 1aboratory vary phenotypically and a proportion of the variation is heritable. despite the fact that the ecosystems initially are composed of thousands of species and millions of individuals. Artificial ecosys- tem selection can be used for practical purposes, illustrates an important role for complex interactions in evolution, and chal- lenges a widespread belief that selection is most effective at lower levels of the biological hierarchy.
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