PLoS One “Multilevel Selection and Neighbourhood Effects from Individual to Metapopulation in a Wild Passerine” I am about to dive into a close reading of this paper, but it suggests that perhaps the reason we do not record multilevel selection pressures is in part because we do not go looking for them.
A Minor Post, Birds, Multilevel Selection, Population GrowthPLoS One “Uncovering Ecosystem Service Bundles through Social Preferences“
A Minor Post, Ecosystem ServicesPLoS One “Symbiotic Associations in the Phenotypically-Diverse Brown Alga Saccharina japonica“
A Minor Post, Mutualism, SpeciationPLoS ONE “Management Implications of the Biodiversity and Socio-Economic Impacts of Shrimp Trawler By-Catch in Bahía de Kino, Sonora, México” Anyone who cares about marine conservation and believes that they can ethically eat seafood is somewhat delusional. Further evidence that there is no such thing as industrial-scale “safe catch”.
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Marine Ecosystems, Resource Consumption, Sustainable HarvestingScience “Endophytic Insect-Parasitic Fungi Translocate Nitrogen Directly from Insects to Plants” What I find fascinating about this story is how a fungus that parasitizes one species can use that ability to form a mutualism with a plant host. I wonder whether there is a value-added feature of this parasitism: are the parasitized insects potential parasites Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Coevolution, Host-Pathogen Evolution, Mutualism, ParasitismScience “Legislating Sea Level Rise” Well, I guess if North Carolina says that nature only changes in a linear manner, it must be true! Thank goodness for brave legislators who are not going to let nature get non-linear on us! We evolutionary biologists have seen this play out before, but this must come as a Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Climate Change, Political Science, Public Policy, SustainabilityInterface “A model balancing cooperation and competition can explain our right-handed world and the dominance of left-handed athletes“
A Minor Post, Competition, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, WebThe July issue of Scientific American features a cover story written by Martin A. Nowak called “Why We Help“. This very short article contains a brief review of Nowak’s “five rules” for cooperation, a little bit of connection to experimental work in real organisms, and some hazy conjecture concerning what makes humans cooperate. It seems as Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Articles, Behavior, Climate Change, Cooperation, Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Kin Selection, Punishment, Reciprocity, Social NetworksNature “Engineering H5N1 avian influenza viruses to study human adaptation” I think that the most interesting idea expressed by this article is: In considering the threat of bioterrorism or accidental release of genetically engineered viruses, it is worth remembering that nature is the ultimate bioterrorist. There is so much in this single statement, so many Read More
A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, ParasitismNature News “The trouble with turbines: An ill wind” What is particularly scary about this story is the targeted effect that wind turbines can have on particular species who gravitate to the very wind corridors that are ideal for efficient power generation.
A Minor Post, Articles, Biodiversity Loss, Birds, Sustainable Energy