关键词: 状态转换动力学, 生态状态, 动态适合度, 状态耦合, 内生不确定性, 演化融合

Abstract

Background and aims: Darwinian natural selection explains lineage divergence, yet horizontal gene transfer, introgression, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance, and interspecific information exchange show that evolutionary trajectories may also connect or integrate. A unified account of divergence and integration is still lacking. Drawing on fig-fig wasp experiments and related research, we propose a state-transition dynamics framework for biological evolution. 

Evidence and framework: In the fig-fig wasp system, spatial configuration, entry history, and ecological relations are associated with shifts between cooperation and competition, host rewards and sanctions, and positive and negative fitness relationships. Because these shifts can occur without changes in the focal genetic background, realized behavior and fitness may reflect spatial and ecological reorganization as well as genetic change. The framework treats ecological states and transitions as basic descriptive units and dynamic fitness as the state-dependent basis of natural selection. 

Core propositions: Changes in behavioral (phenotypic) and genetic states are not independent. Genetic states provide an inherited background for ecological responses; behavioral and phenotypic responses may alter ecological relations and selective contexts, feeding back on the expression and evolutionary consequences of genetic variation. Their cross-timescale interaction and accumulated history may reshape dynamic fitness and subsequent transitions. Recurrent transitions generate paths with historical memory, while state distance and coupling strength influence whether paths remain separate, approach, or connect. Divergence and integration can thus be viewed as outcomes of networked evolution. The superposition effect denotes a formal state-space representation of multiple potential expressions before ecological realization, not a quantum-physical mechanism. Endogenous uncertainty denotes non-uniqueness arising from state formation, coupling, and historical dependence. 

Conclusions and prospects: This framework links behavioral plasticity, genetic evolution, and tree-like and web-like representations of life. As a conceptual proposal, it requires evaluation through experiments, long-term observations, and nonlinear or stochastic state-space models, particularly with respect to transition likelihoods, feedback strength, and applicability.

Key words: state-transition dynamics, ecological state, dynamic fitness, state coupling, endogenous uncertainty, evolutionary integration