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

Modeling branching patterns in early land plants; Niklas' simulations of branching in early land plants; canalization of parameters? Discussion and reply

The proportions in the size of the avian egg albumen, yolk, and shell are crucial for understanding bird survival and reproductive success, because their relationships with volume and surface area can affect ecological and life history strategies. Prior studies have focused on the relationship between the albumen and the yolk, but little is known about the scaling relationship between eggshell mass and shape, and the mass of the albumen and the yolk. Toward this end, 691 eggs of six precocial species were examined, and their 2-D egg profiles were photographed and digitized. The explicit Preston equation, which assumes bilateral symmetrical geometry, was used to fit the 2-D egg profiles and to calculate surface areas and volumes based on the hypothesis that eggs can be treated as solids of profile revolution. The scaling relationships of eggshell mass (Ms), albumen mass (Ma), and yolk mass (My), as well as the surface area (S), volume (V), and total mass (Mt) were determined. The explicit Preston equation was validated in describing the 2-D egg profiles. The scaling exponents of Ma vs. Ms, My vs. Ms, and My vs. Ma were smaller than unity, indicating that increases in Ma and My fail to keep pace with increases in Ms, and that increases in My fail to keep pace with increases in Ma. Therefore, increases in unit nutrient contents (i.e., the yolk) involve disproportionately larger increases in eggshell mass and disproportionately larger increases in albumen mass. The data also revealed a 2/3-power scaling relationship between S and V for each species, i.e., simple Euclidean geometry is obeyed. These findings help to inform our understanding of avian egg construction and reveal evolutionary interspecific trends in the scaling of egg shape, volume, mass, and mass allocation.

Scaling relationships among the mass of eggshell, albumen, and yolk in six precocial birds.

Selection at constant selective pressures results in the optimization of the average productivity within the system and an increase in the information content. The entropy increase through evolutionary time is, therefore, minimized. The “pattern” of entropy descriptions for ontogenetic (developmental) and phylogenetic (evolutionary) changes is shown to be different, and the latter is consistent with the Prigogine-Glansdorff principle for irreversible thermodynamic processes.

Information, entropy, and the evolution of living systems

Reply to Waller

Morphologies on wind pollination

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