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RARE AND SUBTLE. "Thus, despite some undeniable empirical examples, the quantitative evidence from this meta-analysis suggests that this form of adaptive plasticity may be quite rare in natural systems, that the effect is much more subtle than typically assumed or that it is common yet existing studies have failed to demonstrate its existence." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12212/full View in LinkedIn

SPECTRAL INTERACTIONS. "The models of May represent communities with random types of interactions (predator–prey, competition, facilitation, mutualism, commensalism) with random strength of the interactions." Not just eating one another. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-016-0292-1 View in LinkedIn

DATA THIN. "Of the 58 studies included in this paper, only seven provided data or cited papers with data that demonstrated environmental autocorrelation between generations. Thus, the extent to which the parental phenotype is likely to provide a cue is surprisingly poorly understood in the maternal effects literature, which substantially weakens inference of adaptive function." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.12212/full View in LinkedIn

CONNECTANCE. "Robert May "showed that aspects of biological complexity, i.e., the number of species and the frequency of interactions among the species (“connectance”), constrains stability. The apparent contradiction between the notion of MacArthur and the model results of May has been a central focus of ecology ever since." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-016-0292-1 View in LinkedIn

"EXAMPLES of adaptive transgenerational plasticity include the effect of maternal environment on the timing of seed germination and predator-induced maternal effects on offspring morphology." https://lnkd.in/djhmkSP View in LinkedIn

INTERACTING ECOSYSTEMS. Robert MacArthur (1955) "argued that “Biodiversity begets stability”: when a species is part of a species-rich community, it will be better able to withstand environmental change and disturbance because of buffering effects through the complex network of biological interactions with other species in the community." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12080-016-0292-1 View in LinkedIn

THE DIVERSITY QUESTION. “Why are there so many species on earth?” Almost everywhere, we see many species living together. One answer of course is “niche differentiation” powerfully counteracting the Darwinian concept of competitive exclusion and the survival of the fittest." https://lnkd.in/dcnXnAQ View in LinkedIn

NEW VIEW OF NATURAL WORLD. Life is driven to increase sophisticated information. Every action of organisms contributes to this primary goal. This is achieved across all species by aeons of co-evolution, collaboration, information sharing, and symbiosis. The primary energy source that fuels this increase in global information is photons from the sun. All ecosystem interactions are spectral, but are dominantly characterized by interdependence, connectivity, and balance. View in LinkedIn

SIX ANSWERS exist for the 'red in tooth and claw' supposition. Firstly, building greater biological information in genes and all organism all actions support this single goal; second, photons from the sun drive primary production of all complex molecules; thirdly, autotrophs feeding on photons dominate the planet; fourthly, connected interactions between individuals and species create genetic diversity; fifthly, death is critical for the evolution of fresh genes; and sixth, symbiosis and natural balance are prevalent. View in LinkedIn

TIPPING POINT THINKING. "Human activities are pushing Earth toward a "tipping point" that could cause sudden, irreversible changes in relatively stable conditions that have allowed civilization to flourish, a new study warns." https://lnkd.in/dizGdhp View in LinkedIn