a perspective from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/286/5447/2091
"ECOLOGY: How the Biosphere is Organized"
A review by Robert May of Fragile Dominion Complexity and the Commons
by Simon Levin
An excerpt: "Why are there roughly 700 species of birds that breed in North
America, rather than 7 or 70,000? And why, in comparison, only 200-odd in Britain? For the
first question, we are a long way from having the basic understanding that could begin to
answer it. For the second, we have an empirical rule and the beginnings of fundamental
explanation, but we still have much to learn.
These questions are emblematic of many others in ecology: accessible to a schoolchild, but
with no agreed answer as yet.
Nor are such questions--about the structure of food webs or about how ecosystems respond
to various kinds of disturbance--academic arcana. As human impacts on the environment
continue to grow over the coming century and affect even the global climate, the
relatively rudimentary state of ecological science prevents us from making reliable
predictions about how much biological diversity we can lose before natural systems
collapse and deprive us of services upon which we depend. (According to a recent estimate,
the true value of such "ecosystem services" exceeds the global total of
conventional gross domestic product.)"
May goes on to discuss the main points of Levin's book, which is not a
textbook yet about the same issues as your authors address. Compare the fundamental
problems your book lists on p. 6 with Levin's ideas: Can you match them? (It's
not a matter of either set being better or worse; it's just a difference in approach.
The important deal here is to make sure you understand the questions!)
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| Here are Levin's Six Fundamental Questions |
Here are your Textbook's fundamental unanswered problems |
| What patterns exist in nature? |
To what extent does competition for food determine which species can
coexist in a habitat? |
| What are the relative roles of historical accident versus environment
determinism? |
What role does disease play in the dynamics of populations? |
| How do ecosystems assemble themselves? |
Why are there more species in the tropics than at the poles? |
| How does evolution, acting on individuals, shape assemblies? |
What is the relationship between soil productivity and plant community
structure? |
| What is the relation between an ecosystem's structure and its function? |
Why are some species more vulnerable to extinction than others? |
| And does evolution favor resilient systems? |
"And so on." |
Robert May, in his review of Levin's book, adds this: The
central question these are all derived from is, "Why is this organism different from
other organisms?"
[He would probably like critter files.] |
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Do you have anything to add? What big ecological
questions do you think are important?
| Take-home Quiz for Lab 1 (it counts as a
vocab quiz, even though it's not anything like one); due Wednesday,
8 Jan. Do you think answers to any of the
questions above could be found by doing experiments on lab jars
of pond scum? If
your answer is no, your grade is 0. Pick one of the
questions above, and write a short paragraph describing an experiment that might help.
This is for half-baked ideas, not details. Automatic 100 if you just make a
fair try. |
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For Wednesday, study pp. 1-17 with this in mind: "Beyond the legitimate
scientific question about how much can be learned from the experiments is the nagging
question--by no means limited to biodiversity--of when scientific data are strong enough
to form the basis of policy decisions." So now we're looking at how we evaluate
experiments and their conclusions. These big questions and concepts will be
unavoidable in your critter files, lab reports, and exams. But to understand the big
stuff, you must master the vocabulary. Not only will vocabulary be important to
understanding, it's also big on GRE, MCAT, etc., not to mention quizzes.
Define these:. Know for Q and for understanding the
examples in the textbook
| mean |
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| + SE |
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| P |
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| statistically significant |
P < .05 and ..... |
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For Friday, finish chapter one with this in mind: "Beyond the legitimate
scientific question about how much can be learned from the experiments is the nagging
question...of when scientific data are strong enough
to form the basis of policy decisions."
Classics to recognize in future readings and conversations:
Cedar Creek
Hubbard Brook
Harper
Tilman
Darwin
more to come (these names are not on the vocabulary quiz)
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hypothesis?
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hypothesis? 
policy recommendations?
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hypothesis?
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hypothesis?
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hypothesis?
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policy decisions?
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