Posted on 07/10/2006 11:21:37 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Biologists generally accept that evolutionary change can take from decades to millennia, while ecological change can occur over mere days or seasons. However, a new Cornell study shows that evolution and ecology can operate on the same time scale.
When evolution occurs so quickly, the researchers conclude, it can change how populations of various species interact. Ecologists need to consider such evolutionary dynamics in their studies because evolution could affect populations being studied. This insight is critical to predicting the recovery time needed for threatened populations or for predicting disease dynamics, says Justin Meyer '04, who conducted the study as an undergraduate student with Cornell ecologists Stephen Ellner, Nelson Hairston and colleagues.
To observe ecological and evolutionary changes together, the researchers monitored the ecological fluctuations in a model predator-prey laboratory system: a microscopic organism called a rotifer that eats a single-celled algae.
Meyer developed a method to track genetic changes, and the researchers found that as the prey population fluctuated, the algae "evolved" from a type that grows quickly to a type that resists being eaten. The frequency of the algal-genotype changes in response to rotifer population flux clearly demonstrated the synchronicity of ecological and evolutionary time.
The study is published in the July 11 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I disagree. I am confident you would evolve more rapidly growing algae by selective pressure on a monoclonal culture.
So why don't you try it?
"I'll tell you what happened to Lot and his daughters after Sodom and Gommorah"
That is another puzzling story. Lot, his wife and daughters are the only righteous ones in the whole two "towns". Lot's wife gets turned into a pillar of salt. Why? She looked back. Ok, but when the angels come to the house and the neighbors start wanting to do the hokey pokey with them, Lot tells them to take his daughters, and "do with them what is right in your eyes." What a Dad. It must not upset the daughters too much because they get him drunk and each has their way with their Dad, having children from the encounter. Then, in second Peter, Lot is called "righteous". HUH? And don't forget Lot's poor wife gets turned into a giant salt shaker just for looking. Wow. No, not Wow, Just Dang.
No, I'm asking if evolution is not possible, what is your opinion of how everything came to be and over what time period?
You're funny!
New entry in Creatish to English dictionary:
SPAM: Relevant facts and/or detailed scientific research.
It certainly does not prove or even demonstrate anything about evolution.
>.SPAM: Relevant facts and/or detailed scientific research.<
Yeah, most spammers here and at DU see their stuff that way.
>>It certainly does not prove or even demonstrate anything about evolution.<<
That really IS the bottom line here, isn't it.
Thanks for bringing us back on topic. :)
Pasta & beer placemark
That is evolution
It won't work, of course. You know it, I know it, and she knows it -- but hey, don't let a nice story and a thesis premise get in the way of logic.
Why won't it work? Evolution of resistance from non-resistant bacteria works, why not the other way round?
At best, this might be termed "natural selection", which is only a fraction of evolution.
I really dread saying this, but "algae" is plural. :(
Science is Spam Placemarker
In the beginning there was the Great Microbe in the Sky. From him and his arose all that squeal today and will infest the universe tomorrow.
"It certainly does not prove or even demonstrate anything about evolution."
Nothing proves things in science but this does demonstrate a part of evolutionary theory.
Of course that doesn't explain how resistance evolves in colonies starting from a single cell.
Cheryl. Haven't seen you around here much. Please think about this: resistance and tolerance are two completely different things. While we may eventually tolerate drugs so that they become ineffective, no genetic change has led to that tolerance and you do not pass it on to your offspring.
"In the beginning there was the Great Microbe in the Sky."
It was a microbe unparalleled in all of the universes. A single cell with a mitochondria to die for. It said, go forth, and multiply. And the microbe saw that it was good...
Shades of Optimus Prime!
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