Subject: bee & the flower

From: Laurence Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, Oct 7, 1999, 11:33 PM

"Natural selection decreases the intensity of interaction between two
associated species through their diversification (into different
species) as this is an economic advantage. Specialization and
diversification are an adaptive advantage, improving survival potential.
The mechanism of such specialisation and diversification will be similar
to that which adapts some invertebrates to the annual change of its food

resource, so that they have evolved a period of growth and a period of
dormancy. Similar too is the stimulus to migrate found in some birds.

I have interpreted the relationship where, for both species,
intraspecific (within species) competition inhibits the growth of a
population more than interspecific (between species) interactions as an
association of interdependence. I have recognised the evolution of
interdependence and coadaptation.

An interactive-factor of zero implies no interaction or no measurable
impact in one direction of the interaction. The intensity of the
intraspecific interactions, measured in energy terms has a value of 1. I
compare all other interactions with this. Between 0 (no interaction) and
1 (interactions equal to intraspecific interactions) exists the realm of
coadaptation, if both species have an interactive-factor (i-factor) of
less than 1 for the other species. This is the window of opportunity
that nature uses and leads to holism. This is what I model and is the
source of compatibility.

The Lotka Volterra formula restricts one strictly to a consideration of
INTERACTIVE EFFECTS or the interactive regime between the two species.
Niche separation may be so that the two species depend upon completely
different food resources, nesting sites etc. There would then be no
interaction, the i-factor being 0 and the two K-values (carrying
capacity) would be independent variables. If i is above 0 the two
species interact and share some resource and their K-values must
intersect to an extent.

Biotic relationships, under the conventional scheme of the
Lotka-Volterra model, are represented by a competition coefficient which
is positive (+) if the interaction effects an increase to population
growth and negative (-) if it effects a decrease to
population growth or 0 if no effect is felt. As such, this method
allocates ++ as the effect of the bee-flower interaction or mutualistic
relationships, with both competition coefficients being positive and a
predatory or parasitic relationship as +-.
Conventionally, the model's e interactive coefficient is a measure of
the effect of one species upon POPULATION GROWTH of another. This is
difficult to quantify. My adaptation of this model defines the i-factor
as a relative energetic cost. The i-factor determines the r-factor.
Evolution through natural selection has defined intraspecific behaviour
that is an adaptation to the environment and determines the reproductive
output (r-factor) of the species. As natural selection selects for the
fittest, and those that perpetuate are the fittest, what is found is
fitness defined by the i-factor.

Interaction with one's own species gets a value of one, but represents
the average energy expended through such interactions under normal
conditions. This is a one to one interaction. WITHIN THE TOTAL SYSTEM
THERE ARE MANY SUCH
INTERACTIONS, THE NUMBER RELATED TO THE POPULATION DENSITY. This may
give a clue as to the mechanism of self-regulation of the population
density. An interaction is an energetic cost while the habitat provides
an
energetic return. They exclude weaker interactors when the effort to
maintain intraspecific interactions uses more energy than the animal
gains from its habitat. The adjustment can thus be a natural mechanism
dictated by inherited behaviour
determining interaction rates and intensities, the average energy
expended to maintain daily activities and the return in energy as food.
Without the intraspecific interactions the animal may have survived and
had time to gather more food. Interactions may
therefore lead to animals maintaining a population density below the
carrying capacity of the environment.

By definition, an ecosystem's inhabitants evolve together, so natural
selection will favour lower i-factors for each species within the
ecosystem. This results through the coevolution of associated species.
Lower i-factors mean greater energetic efficiency for the whole
ecosystem and therefore greater stability. They have achieved a decrease
in the i-factor of an organism experimentally.

Forces of natural selection shift because of the interactions between
species that share niche space. Coadaptation occurs as each interactor
will be adapting to the other's presence. Holism emerges from the
complex system as a result of
interactions and natural selection. "

From:
http://members.xoom.com/ecotao/conc_summ.htm