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Evolutionary Suicide
Evolutionary suicide is an evolutionary phenomenon in which the process of adaptation causes the population to become extinct. It provides an alternative explanation for extinction, which is due to misadaptation rather than failure to adapt. For example, individuals might be selected to destroy their own food (e.g. switch from eating mature plants to seedlings), and thereby deplete their food plant's population. Selection on individuals can theoretically produce adaptations that threaten the survival of the population. Much of the research on evolutionary suicide has used the mathematical modeling technique adaptive dynamics, in which genetic changes are studied together with population dynamics. This allows the model to predict how population density will change as a given so called kamikaze mutant with a certain phenotypic trait invades the population. At first, a kamikaze mutant has an advantage in reproduction, but once it spreads throughout the population, the population ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection. Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle. In 18th and 19th-century natural theology, adaptation was taken as evidence for the existence of a deity. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed instead that it was explained by natural selection. Adaptation is related to biological fitness, which governs the rate of evolution as measured by changes in allele frequencies. Often, two or more species co-adapt and co-evolve as they develop adaptations tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Trap
In psychology, a social trap is a conflict of interest or perverse incentive where individuals or a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole. Social traps are the cause of countless environmental issues, including overfishing, energy "brownout" and "blackout" power outages during periods of extreme temperatures, the overgrazing of cattle on the Sahelian Desert, the destruction of the rainforest by logging interests and agriculture, and, most importantly, climate change. Origin of the concept The term ''social trap'' was first introduced to the scientific community by John Platt's 1973 paper in ''American Psychologist'', and in a book developed in an interdisciplinary symposium held at the University of Michigan. Building upon the concept of the "tragedy of the commons" in Garrett Hardin's pivotal article in ''Science'' (1968), Platt and others in the seminar applied behavioral psychology concepts to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulletin Of Mathematical Biology
The Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) is an international association co-founded in 1972 in the United States by George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl and (initially chaired) by Anthony Bartholomay for the furtherance of joint scientific activities between Mathematics and Biology research communities. The society publishes the ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biology'', as well as the quarterly SMB newsletter.http://www.smb.org/publications/index.shtml SMB Publications History The Society for Mathematical Biology emerged and grew from the earlier school of mathematical biology, mathematical biophysics, initiated and supported by the Founder of Mathematical biology, Mathematical Biology, Nicolas Rashevsky. Thus, the roots of SMB go back to the publication in 1939 of the first international journal of mathematical biology, previously entitled "The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics"—which was founded by Nicolas Rashevsky, and which is currently published by SMB under the name of "' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maladaptation
In evolution, a maladaptation ( /ˌmælædæpˈteɪʃən/) is a trait that is (or has become) more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful. All organisms, from bacteria to humans, display maladaptive and adaptive traits. Like adaptation, maladaptation may be viewed as occurring over geological time, or within the lifetime of one individual or a group. Maladaptation can arise when adaptations to environmental challenges have unintended harmful effects by either decreasing the current fitness of the organism or creating new risks which may decrease survivability. This could be caused by changes in trait distribution from genetic loading, exogenous environmental changes in the fitness landscape, or feedback in eco-plasticity, altering the fitness landscape. It can also signify an adaptation that, whilst reasonable at the time, has become less and less suitable and more of a problem or hindrance in its own right, as time goes on. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolutionary Mismatch
Evolutionary mismatch (also "mismatch theory" or "evolutionary trap") is the evolutionary biology concept that a previously advantageous phenotypic trait, trait may become maladaptation, maladaptive due to change in the biophysical environment, environment, especially when change is rapid. It is said this can take place in humans as well as other animals. Environmental change leading to evolutionary mismatch can be broken down into two major categories: temporal (change of the existing environment over time, e.g. a climate change) or spatial (placing organisms into a new environment, e.g. a population migrating). Since environmental change occurs naturally and constantly, there will certainly be examples of evolutionary mismatch over time. However, because large-scale natural environmental change – like a natural disaster – is often rare, it is less often observed. Another more prevalent kind of environmental change is anthropogenic (human-caused). In recent times, humans hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Traps
Ecological traps are scenarios in which rapid environmental change leads organisms to prefer to settle in poor-quality habitats. The concept stems from the idea that organisms that are actively selecting habitat must rely on environmental cues to help them identify high-quality habitat. If either the habitat quality or the cue changes so that one does not reliably indicate the other, organisms may be lured into poor-quality habitat. Overview Ecological traps are thought to occur when the attractiveness of a habitat increases disproportionately in relation to its value for survival and reproduction. The result is preference of falsely attractive habitat and a general avoidance of high-quality but less-attractive habitats. For example, indigo buntings typically nest in shrubby habitat or broken forest transitions between closed canopy forest and open field. Human activity can create 'sharper', more abrupt forest edges and buntings prefer to nest along these edges. However, these a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Robin
The black robin or Chatham Island robin (Moriori language, Moriori: , ; ''Petroica traversi'') is an endangered bird from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. It is closely related to the South Island robin (''P. australis''). It was first described by Walter Buller in 1872. The binomial commemorates the New Zealand botanist Henry H. Travers (1844–1928). Unlike its mainland counterparts, its flight capacity is somewhat reduced. Evolution in the absence of mammalian predators made it vulnerable to introduced species, such as cats and rats, and it became extinct on the main island of the Chatham group before 1871, being restricted to Little Mangere Island thereafter.Falla, R.A.,Sibson, R.B. and Turbott, E.G., illustrated by Elaine Power. (1979) The new guide to the birds of New Zealand and outlying islands. Collins, Auckland. Discovery and taxonomy The first mention of the black robin in science was at a presentation given by William Travers (New Zealand polit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Limits To Growth
''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential Economic growth, economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simulate the consequence of interactions between the Earth and human systems. Commissioned by the Club of Rome, the study saw its findings first presented at international gatherings in Moscow and Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1971. The report's authors are Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III, representing a team of 17 researchers. The model was based on the work of Jay Forrester of MIT, as described in his book ''World Dynamics''. The report's findings suggest that, in the absence of significant alterations in resource utilization and environmental destruction, it is highly likely that there will be an abrupt and unmanageable decrease in both population and industrial capacity. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fisherian Runaway
Fisherian runaway or runaway selection is a sexual selection mechanism proposed by the mathematical biologist Ronald Fisher in the early 20th century, to account for the evolution of ostentatious male ornamentation by persistent, directional female choice. An example is the colourful and elaborate peacock plumage compared to the relatively subdued peahen plumage; the costly ornaments, notably the bird's extremely long tail, appear to be incompatible with natural selection. Fisherian runaway can be postulated to include sexually dimorphic phenotypic traits such as behavior expressed by a particular sex. Extreme and (seemingly) maladaptive sexual dimorphism represented a paradox for evolutionary biologists from Charles Darwin's time up to the modern synthesis. Darwin attempted to resolve the paradox by assuming heredity for both the preference and the ornament, and supposed an "aesthetic sense" in higher animals, leading to powerful selection of both characteristics in subseque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and recover. As a species' potential Range (biology), range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxon, Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the Fossil, fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. Over five billion species are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally, possibly many times more if microorganisms are included. Notable extinct animal species include Dinosaur, non-avian dinosaurs, Machairodontinae, saber-toothed cats, and mammoths. Through evolution, species arise through the process of specia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tendency Of The Rate Of Profit To Fall
The tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF) is a theory in the crisis theory of political economy, according to which the rate of profit—the ratio of the profit to the amount of invested capital—decreases over time. This hypothesis gained additional prominence from its discussion by Karl Marx in Chapter 13 of '' Capital, Volume III,'' but economists as diverse as Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo and William Stanley Jevons referred explicitly to the TRPF as an empirical phenomenon that demanded further theoretical explanation, although they differed on the reasons why the TRPF should necessarily occur. Some scholars, such as David Harvey, argue against the TRPF as a quantitative phenomenon, arguing it is an internal logic driving the movement of capital itself. Geoffrey Hodgson stated that the theory of the TRPF "has been regarded, by most Marxists, as the backbone of revolutionary Marxism. According to this view, its refutation or removal would lead to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tragedy Of The Commons
The tragedy of the commons is the concept that, if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource, such as a pasture, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether. Even if some users exercised voluntary restraint, the other users would merely replace them, the predictable result being a "tragedy" for all. The concept has been widely discussed, and criticised, in economics, ecology and other sciences. The metaphorical term is the title of a 1968 essay by ecologist Garrett Hardin. The concept itself did not originate with Hardin but rather extends back to classical antiquity, being discussed by Aristotle. The principal concern of Hardin's essay was overpopulation of the planet. To prevent the inevitable tragedy (he argued) it was necessary to reject the principle (supposedly enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) according to which every family has a right to choose the number of its offspring, and to replace it b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
