Species competition (Introduction)
by David Turell 
, Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 15:30 (3812 days ago)
Darwin's idea of species competition not found in this study of algae:-http://www.livescience.com/45205-data-dont-back-up-darwin-in-algae-study-nsf-bts.html- "The scientists did not set out to disprove Darwin, but, in fact, to learn more about the genetic and ecological uniqueness of fresh water green algae so they could provide conservationists with useful data for decision-making. "We went into it assuming Darwin to be right, and expecting to come up with some real numbers for conservationists," Cardinale says. "When we started coming up with numbers that showed he wasn't right, we were completely baffled." -"If Darwin had been right, the older, more genetically unique species should have unique niches, and should compete less strongly, while the ones closely related should be ecologically similar and compete much more strongly — but that's not what happened," Cardinale says. "We didn't see any evidence of that at all. We found this to be so in field experiments, lab experiments and surveys in 1,200 lakes in North America where evolution cannot tell us which species co-exist in lakes in nature. "If Darwin was right, we should've seen species that are genetically different and ecologically unique, doing unique things and not competing with other species," he adds. "But we didn't." "Certain traits determine whether a species is a good competitor or a bad competitor, he says. "Evolution does not appear to predict which species have good traits and bad traits," he says. "We should be able to look at the Tree of Life, and evolution should make it clear who will win in competition and who will lose. But the traits that regulate competition can't be predicted from the Tree of Life."-"Darwin "was obsessed with competition," Cardinale says. "He assumed the whole world was composed of species competing with each other, but we found that one-third of the species of algae we studied actually like each other. They don't grow as well unless you put them with another species. It may be that nature has a heck of a lot more mutualisms than we ever expected. "Maybe species are co-evolving," he adds. "Maybe they are evolving together so they are more productive as a team than they are individually. We found that more than one-third of the time, that they like to be together. Maybe Darwin's presumption that the world may be dominated by competition is wrong."
Species competition
DAVID: Darwin's idea of species competition not found in this study of algae: -http://www.livescience.com/45205-data-dont-back-up-darwin-in-algae-study-nsf-bts.html QUOTE: "Darwin "was obsessed with competition," Cardinale says. "He assumed the whole world was composed of species competing with each other, but we found that one-third of the species of algae we studied actually like each other. They don't grow as well unless you put them with another species. It may be that nature has a heck of a lot more mutualisms than we ever expected. "Maybe species are co-evolving," he adds. "Maybe they are evolving together so they are more productive as a team than they are individually. We found that more than one-third of the time, that they like to be together. Maybe Darwin's presumption that the world may be dominated by competition is wrong."-Lynn Margulis cracked this myth thirty years ago when she emphasized that cooperation was just as important to evolution as competition. Do these researchers not know of her work? Do they really think they are onto something new? You may remember she was the one who also called for more research on the subject of cellular intelligence, as a result of the studies she had made of bacteria.
Species competition
by David Turell , Wednesday, June 18, 2014, 01:33 (3812 days ago) @ dhw
article: Maybe Darwin's presumption that the world may be dominated by competition is wrong."[/i] > > dhw: Lynn Margulis cracked this myth thirty years ago when she emphasized that cooperation was just as important to evolution as competition. Do these researchers not know of her work? Do they really think they are onto something new? You may remember she was the one who also called for more research on the subject of cellular intelligence, as a result of the studies she had made of bacteria.-You are quite correct, but these folks were looking at algae, and perhaps didn't think of Margulis, since she was controversal. But they have broadened Margulis' findings. And note they were discussing Darwin's emphasis on competition, which he did.