Predator attack rate evolution in space: the role of ecology mediated by complex emergent spatial structure and self-shading.

Predation interactions are an important element of ecological communities. Population spatial structure has been shown to influence predator evolution, resulting in the evolution of a reduced predator attack rate; however, the evolutionary role of traits governing predator and prey ecology is unknown. The evolutionary effect of spatial structure on a predator's attack rate has primarily been explored assuming a fixed metapopulation spatial structure, and understood in terms of group selection.

The consequences of spatial structure for the evolution of pathogen transmission rate and virulence.

The distribution of organisms in space can be an important mediator of species interactions, but its evolutionary effects on those interactions are only beginning to be explored. These effects may be especially relevant to pathogen-host interactions. A detailed understanding of how and when spatial structure will affect the evolution of pathogen traits is likely to aid our ability to control rapidly emerging infectious diseases.

Effects of the insecticide phosmet on solitary bee foraging and nesting in orchards of Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Capitol Reef National Park, in southcentral Utah, contains 22 small orchards planted with antique fruit varieties by Mormon pioneers beginning over a century ago. The orchards continue to be managed in a pick-and-pay program, which includes spraying with phosmet to suppress codling moth (Cydia pomonella L.).

Evidence for involvement of photosynthetic processes in the stomatal response to CO2.

Stomatal conductance (gs) typically declines in response to increasing intercellular CO2 concentration (ci). However, the mechanisms underlying this response are not fully understood. Recent work suggests that stomatal responses to ci and red light (RL) are linked to photosynthetic electron transport.

Evidence for complex, collective dynamics and emergent, distributed computation in plants.

It has been suggested that some biological processes are equivalent to computation, but quantitative evidence for that view is weak. Plants must solve the problem of adjusting stomatal apertures to allow sufficient CO(2) uptake for photosynthesis while preventing excessive water loss. Under some conditions, stomatal apertures become synchronized into patches that exhibit richly complicated dynamics, similar to behaviors found in cellular automata that perform computational tasks.