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On the Origins and Dynamics of Biodiversity: the Role of Chance

:	Alain Pavé
:	On the Origins and Dynamics of Biodiversity: the Role of Chance
:	Springer-Verlag
:	9781441962447
:	1
:	CHF 85.90
:

:	Ökologie
:	English

:	178
:	Wasserzeichen/DRM
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	PDF

Chance is necessary for living systems - from the cell to organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems. It is at the heart of their evolution and diversity. Long considered contingent on other factors, chance both produces random events in the environment, and is the product of endogenous mechanisms - molecular as well as cellular, demographic and ecological. This is how living things have been able to diversify themselves and survive on the planet. Chance is not something to which Life has been subjected; it is quite simply necessary for Life. The endogenous mechanisms that bring it about are at once the products and the engines of evolution, and they also produce biodiversity. These internal mechanisms - veritable 'biological roulettes' - are analogous to the mechanical devices that bring about 'physical chance'. They can be modeled by analogous mathematical equations. This open the way of a global modeling of biodiversity dynamics, but we need also to gather quantitative data in both the laboratory setting as well as in the field. By examining biodiversity at all scales and all levels, this book seeks to evaluate the breadth of our knowledge on this topical subject, to propose an integrated look at living things, to assess the role of chance in its dynamics, in the evolutionary processes and also to imagine practical consequences on the management of living systems.

	Foreword	7
	Acknowledgements	10
	Summary	12
	Contents	13
	1 Questioning Chance	17
	1.1 Introduction	17
	1.2 Different Uses of the Word Chance in the Sciences	19
	1.2.1 Chance in Quantum Mechanics and Mechanical Statistics	20
	1.2.2 Chance for the Statistician	22
	1.2.3 Chance for the Probability Theorist	23
	1.2.4 Chance for the Numerical Analyst and the Computer Scientist	24
	Box 1.1 Generating Pseudo-Random Numbers	25
	1.2.5 Chance, Hazards, and Risks	26
	1.2.6 Life Tested by the Vagaries of the Environment During Its Long History	27
	2 Chance in Living Systems	30
	2.1 Chance and Necessity	30
	2.1.1 The Neutral Theory of Evolution: A Gentle Necessity	31
	2.1.2 The Couple Chance-Necessity	32
	2.1.3 Randomness and Evolution: The Necessity of Chance	33
	2.1.4 From the Gene to the Ecosystem: Chance in the Different Organisational Levels of Living Systems	33
	2.2 Known Genetic Diversification Mechanisms	34
	2.2.1 Gene Diversification: The Randomness of One-Off Mutations	34
	Reminder:	36
	2.2.2 The Organisation and Plasticity of the Genome: The Vagaries of Piecewise Mutations	37
	2.2.2.1 Prokaryotes	37
	Box 2.1 The Mixing of the Genome Schematic Representation of the Principal, Known Mechanisms	38
	2.2.2.2 Eukaryotes	39
	2.2.2.3 The Particular Case of Gene Duplication	39
	2.2.2.4 Epigenetics	40
	2.2.2.5 Conclusion: The Diversity of Genome Modification Mechanisms	42
	2.2.3 Reproduction and the Transmission of Genetic Information: Shuffling the Cards	42
	2.2.3.1 Sexual Reproduction: The Production of Gametes	42
	2.2.3.2 Sexual Reproduction: The Fertilisation and Fusion of Gametes	44
	2.2.3.3 Other Methods of Reproduction	44
	2.2.3.4 Horizontal and Vertical Transfers	44
	2.3 The Cell and the Organism: A Limited Randomness	46
	2.3.1 A Living Machine	46
	2.3.2 Individual Homogeneity, the Diversity of Organisms	46
	2.3.3 A Cooperative Structure	48
	Box 2.2 Competition and Cooperation	48
	2.3.4 A Limited, But Efficient Randomness: The Immune and Olfactory Systems	50
	2.3.5 Using the Vagaries of the Environment	52
	2.3.6 Organisms and Changes in the Environment	52
	2.3.7 Random Behaviours	52
	2.4 Lineages, Populations and Species: Chance Encounters, Couplings, and Disturbances	54
	Box 2.3 Populations, Metapopulations, Species	54
	Theoretical Diagram: Populations, Metapopulations and Species	55
	2.5 The Main Sources of Biodiversity	57
	2.6 Evolution and Its Theories: The Randomness of Genetic Modifications	58
	2.7 Ecological Randomness: Live and Survive Together, Face Environmental Risks	61
	Box 2.4 Competitive Exclusion	62
	2.7.1 The Neutral Theory of Biodiversity	64
	2.7.2 Spatial Distribution: Randomness and Necessity in the Environment	65
	2.7.3 Evolutional Interpretation in the Face of Risks: Necessary Diversification and the no Less Necessary Random Distribution	66
	2.7.3.1 Higher Plants and Their Spatial Distribution	66
	Box 2.5 Co-evolution	68
	Box 2.6 Frugivory and Seed Dissemination: The Use of Cecropia obtusa by the Bat, Artibeus jamaicensis	70
	2.7.3.2 And for Animals: Which Distributions?	71
	2.7.3.3 Micro-Organisms: At the Will of the Environment and of Others	72
	2.7.3.4 Deterministic and Random Movement	72
	2.7.4 The Dynamics of Biodiversity	74
	2.7.5 Measuring Biodiversity	78
	2.8 Randomness, Chaos and Complexity	81
	2.8.1 From Chaos to Randomness	82
	2.8.2 Intermittences	84
	2.8.3 Two Types of Randomness, Two Complexities	84
	2.9 Randomness and the Organisational Levels of Living Systems	86
	Box 2.7 How do Living Systems Organise Themselves?	87
	2.10 Conclusion	90
	3 Lessons for Managing Living Systems	94
	3.1 Organisms	94
	3.2 Populations and Ecosystems	95
	3.3 Biodiversity	96
	3.4 Information and Genetic Heritage	97
	3.5 Conserving Genetic Resources	97
	3.6 Genetic Modification: Hybridisation and Selection	97
	3.7 Genetic Manipulation: Gene Insertion	99
	3.8 Cloning	100
	3.9 Active Molecules of Biological Origin	101
	3.10 Ecotox