Patchwork planet: the resource dispersion hypothesis, society, and the ecology of life
نویسندگان
چکیده
Virtually nothing in nature is uniform. Observed at the right scale, most entities are clustered rather than evenly distributed, spatially and temporally, and this applies across domains from the distribution of matter in the universe, to habitats across the Earth’s surface, and to energy in the landscape. Patchiness means organisms cannot carve out even territories. Instead, their shape and size depends on the dispersion of materials needed for survival and reproduction. This fundamental feature of life is intrinsically understood in ecology, for example, in the ideal free distribution and optimal foraging theory, and is represented in the anatomy as well as behaviour of organisms via the structures and strategies for moving, finding and capturing these patchy resources. But perhaps most striking of all is the role of patchiness in facilitating the formation of social groups – of societies. The resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH) suggests that where resources are dispersed and rich enough, multiple individuals can collapse into groups that share the same space at little cost to each other. Cooperation may be absent, but sociality is favoured nevertheless. Thirty years after the origin of the hypothesis, we review the accumulating models, critiques, evidence and experiments, concluding that RDH is a pervasive feature of animal spacing patterns across a wide range of species, taxonomic groups and ecosystems. In the spirit of the original objective of the Huxley Reviews to ‘suggest and inspire research that will improve our knowledge in the future’, we also take the opportunity to consider wider implications of the RDH. If we live and evolved on a patchwork planet, then we should expect broader effects. Indeed, we suggest that the RDH has played an important role in the evolution of cooperation, biodiversity, behaviour and, not least, in the social organization of humans in our evolutionary past and today.
منابع مشابه
Enhanced Solubility and Bioavailability of Apigenin via Preparation of Solid Dispersions of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles
In this study, a novel mesoporous silica nanoparticles drug carrier contributes to improving the solubility, dissolution, and the oral bioavailability of apigenin (AP). The apigenin of solid dispersion of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AP-MSN) was prepared by physical absorption method and also, in-vitro drug release and in-vivo bioavailability performance were evaluated. Based on its solubil...
متن کاملEnhanced Solubility and Bioavailability of Apigenin via Preparation of Solid Dispersions of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles
In this study, a novel mesoporous silica nanoparticles drug carrier contributes to improving the solubility, dissolution, and the oral bioavailability of apigenin (AP). The apigenin of solid dispersion of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AP-MSN) was prepared by physical absorption method and also, in-vitro drug release and in-vivo bioavailability performance were evaluated. Based on its solubil...
متن کاملLinguistic Audit as a Professional Activity
The subject of this research is linguistic (or: language) audit. The term is new and not being widely used so far. Linguistic audit, in particular, is offered as a service of linguistic-consulting agencies’ activities. Modern linguistic consulting, according to the author, is a form of stimulating theoretical and practical development of linguistic ecology, a new branch of applied linguistics, ...
متن کاملSpatial overlap in a solitary carnivore: support for the land tenure, kinship or resource dispersion hypotheses?
There are several alternative hypotheses about the effects of territoriality, kinship and prey availability on individual carnivore distributions within populations. The first is the land-tenure hypothesis, which predicts that carnivores regulate their density through territoriality and temporal avoidance. The second is the kinship hypothesis, which predicts related individuals will be clumped ...
متن کاملProviding a essay about: study on the spatial pattern of biodiversity caused by implementing agroforestry methods
Forests are biologically diverse systems, representing some of the richest biological areas on Earth. They offer a variety of habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms. However, forest biodiversity is increasingly threatened as a result of deforestation, fragmentation, climate change and other stressors. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or on t...
متن کامل