Evolution in varying environments

[Nick Thompson]

Hmm Roger.  I always thought that unpredictable environments contribute more within-species diversitity and FEWER species.  

Nick

----- Original Message -----
From: Roger Critchlow
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: 8/14/2007 3:48:42 PM
Subject: [FRIAM] Evolution in varying environments


Back to complexity for a moment.  

Here are two open access preprints from PNAS that I found while looking for the new map of Angkor Wat.

The first is about speeding up artificial evolution by changing the environment:

      http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0611630104v1

I haven't read enough to see how they identify the "modules" into which they decompose the phenotype so they can select different subsets of modules on each environmental change.

The second, which was published a day earlier, is about the same thing, only for real.  The environment in Madagascar is diverse, but the diverse regions all share an unpredictable rainfall through the year and year to year.  This unpredictability is proposed to contribute to the unusual diversity of mammals found.

     http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0704346104v1

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[Roger Critchlow-2]

On 8/14/07, Nicholas Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>  Hmm Roger.  I always thought that unpredictable environments contribute
> more within-species diversitity and FEWER species.
>
> Nick
>

Nick --

Apparently a generalization that fits some of the facts.

  The communities of Madagascar are characterized by high
levels of endemicity, great species diversity in some taxonomic
groups, and a complete absence of others.

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