Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

Humans are altering the composition of biological communities through a variety of activities that increase rates of species invasions and species extinctions, at all scales, from local to global. These changes in components of the Earth's biodiversity cause concern for ethical and aesthetic reasons, but they also have a strong potential to alter ecosystem properties and the goods and services they provide to humanity. Ecological experiments, observations, and theoretical developments show that ecosystem properties depend greatly on biodiversity in terms of the functional characteristics of organisms present in the ecosystem and the distribution and abundance of those organisms over space and time. Species effects act in concert with the effects of climate, resource availability, and disturbance regimes in influencing ecosystem properties. Human activities can modify all of the above factors; here we focus on modification of these biotic controls. The scientific community has come to a broad consensus on many aspects of the re- lationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, including many points relevant to management of ecosystems. Further progress will require integration of knowledge about biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystem properties, how ecological communities are struc- tured, and the forces driving species extinctions and invasions. To strengthen links to policy and management, we also need to integrate our ecological knowledge with understanding of the social and economic constraints of potential management practices. Understanding this complexity, while taking strong steps to minimize current losses of species, is necessary for responsible management of Earth's ecosystems and the diverse biota they contain.

/pdf/effects-of-biodiversity-on-ecosystem-functioning-a-consensus-13j8vabcus.pdf

Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge

Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Metabolic rate, the rate at which organisms take up, transform, and expend energy and materials, is the most fundamental biological rate. We have developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature. Metabolic theory predicts how metabolic rate, by setting the rates of resource uptake from the environment and resource allocation to survival, growth, and reproduction, controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere. Examples include: (1) life history attributes, including devel- opment rate, mortality rate, age at maturity, life span, and population growth rate; (2) population interactions, including carrying capacity, rates of competition and predation, and patterns of species diversity; and (3) ecosystem processes, including rates of biomass production and respiration and patterns of trophic dynamics. Data compiled from the ecological literature strongly support the theoretical predictions. Even- tually, metabolic theory may provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology, just as genetic theory provides a foundation for much of evolutionary biology.

/pdf/toward-a-metabolic-theory-of-ecology-1dxmg8xr3n.pdf

Toward a metabolic theory of ecology

Allometric scaling relations, including the 3/4 power law for metabolic rates, are characteristic of all organisms and are here derived from a general model that describes how essential materials are transported through space-filling fractal networks of branching tubes. The model assumes that the energy dissipated is minimized and that the terminal tubes do not vary with body size. It provides a complete analysis of scaling relations for mammalian circulatory systems that are in agreement with data. More generally, the model predicts structural and functional properties of vertebrate cardiovascular and respiratory systems, plant vascular systems, insect tracheal tubes, and other distribution networks.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/276/5309/122.full.pdf

A general model for the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology

Premise Perhaps the most rapid period of vascular plant evolution occurred during the Silurian-Devonian time interval. Yet, few quantitative analyses have established the extent to which anatomical, morphological, or reproductive features contributed to this episode of tracheophyte diversification. Methods Phylogenetic analyses were performed using a newly revised matrix of 54 characters (with 158 character states) of 37 of the best-preserved Paleozoic (predominantly Devonian) plants. Equisetum was included to determine whether it aligns with fossil sphenopsids or taxa collectively considered "ferns". The topology of the 54-character consensus tree was then compared to the topologies generated using only reproductive features (18 characters; 47 character states), only anatomical features (14 characters; 54 character states), only morphological features (22 characters; 57 character states), and the three pairwise combinations (e.g., anatomical and morphological characters). Results The new 54-character tree topology continued to identify a trimerophyte-euphyllophyte clade and a zosterophyllophyte-lycophyte clade emerging from a Cooksonia-rhyniophyte plexus. Equisetum aligned with fossil sphenopsids rather than fern-like fossil taxa. Reproductive characters or anatomical characters analyzed in isolation resulted in nearly complete polytomy. Among the various permutations of the three categories, anatomical and morphological characters when combined provided the best restoration of the 54-character tree topology. Conclusions The phylogenetic relationships among the canonical fossil taxa used in this analysis predominantly reflect morphological trends. Reproductive and anatomical features taken in isolation appear to be evolutionarily conservative characters, i.e., natural selection "sees" the external phenotype.

https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ajb2.1440

Morphological (and not anatomical or reproductive) features define early vascular plant phylogenetic relationships.

Organic chemistry of Protosalvinia (Foerstia) from the Chattanooga and New Albany Shales

Specific leaf area (SLA) is reported to decrease with increasing plant size among dicot tree species despite a strong positive correlation between SLA and relative growth rate. This diminishing returns in SLA may result from changes in the relative numbers of different shoot types bearing leaves with different SLAs as trees increase in overall size. This ontogenetic shift hypothesis was examined for 15 Acer rubrum trees differing in basal stem diameter (0.01 m [less-than or equal to] D [less-than or equal to] 0.62 m). Detailed analyses of the largest tree showed that short-shoots produced leaves with significantly smaller SLA than the leaves produced by long-shoots regardless of the location of shoots within the canopy. A combination of random effect and split-plot (main-effect) ANOVA models showed that >94% of the variance observed for SLA was attributable to shoot type rather than to the location of leaves in the canopy. Further, with increasing trunk diameter, the number of short-shoots increased rapidly relative to the number of long-shoots. Although the leaves of short-shoots gain disproportionately more surface area per unit mass investment compared to the leaves produced by long-shoots, our data show that ontogenetic shifts occurring at the shoot and whole plant level account for size-dependent decreases in total canopy SLA.

https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3732/ajb.0900249

Ontogenetic changes in the numbers of short- vs. long-shoots account for decreasing specific leaf area in Acer rubrum (Aceraceae) as trees increase in size.

Differential preservation of protoplasm in fossil angiosperm leaf tissues

Voigt and Reuss models for predicting changes in Young's modulus of dehydrating plant organs

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