Selective pressure
An environmental factor that favours the survival and reproduction of some variants over others.
At a glance
Key signals
0% cross fields · reaches 0 more
- Evolutionary Biology
- Biology
- Ecology
- Explanation
- Examples
- Misconception
- Sourced relations
- Attribution
Dependencies
What this concept builds on and what it makes possible — derived from the atlas’s dependency, causal and structural relations, not from every related edge.
Enables · leads to
Selective pressurecausesNatural selectionEstablished
selective pressure drives natural selection.
Mechanism: Selective pressure is the force that drives natural selection.
- Evolution (4th ed.) — demonstrates this case · needs-check · strong evidence · An environmental pressure that makes reproduction depend on a heritable trait is what drives selection on that trait. (Natural Selection and Adaptation)
Structural role & consequence
Interpreted from the current atlas graph — what the connections mean, not just how many there are.
Directly enables 1 concept; following enables/causes relations, 2 concepts are downstream across 3 disciplines.
structural · Follows only enables/causes dependency edges — not general relatedness.
Currently dark in the atlas: no key date stored.
atlas representation · Describes the current Thinking OS representation, not the state of the world.
Structural neighbourhood: 1 → 19 → 89 concepts reachable within 3 hops.
structural · Structural reach — being reachable is not the same as being understood.
All 1 of its relationships stay within its own discipline — a field-specific concept in the current atlas.
structural · Structural graph analysis — not a claim of importance, causation or history.
cross-field
1 within-field, 0 cross-field
Strengths & constraints
Strengths
- Well-evidenced in the atlas — a verified source and 100% of its relations carry claim-level evidence. atlas representation
Constraints
- No dated history stored — the atlas records no key date for this concept. atlas representation
Dependency radial
What this concept builds on (left) and what it makes possible (right) — derived from dependency and causal relations.
Seen through each discipline
How this concept sits in each of its fields — derived from its real connections in the graph, not asserted.
Through this lens it connects to Natural selection.
Through this lens it connects to Natural selection.
Related ideas to explore
Concepts that look related but are not yet connected here — candidates for a connection to reason about, not established links.
This idea also appears in…
The same structure shows up in other disciplines. These are real recurrences drawn from the graph — a starting point for asking “what carries over, and what changes?”
Variation & selection11 disciplines · 9 concepts
Concepts
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
- AdaptationComparative Literature
shares a mental model
- Common descentPaleontology
shares a mental model
Mental models at work here
- Connects 1 other ideas across 3 disciplines.
- Most of its connections are of the “Cause & effect” kind.
- It exercises 1 reusable thinking pattern.
Derived from the graph’s real structure — observations, not a score.
Sources
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
- Microbiology (OpenStax) (2016) verification pendingmoderate evidence