Subject: Anyone for tennis, or other game theories?

From: [email-masked] (Dennis)
Date: 20 Jun 1995 12:39:45 -0700

I didn't get any responses to my game theory question :(  But thats OK.
 
I was trying to see what sort of responses would be tossed out, partly
to try and generate some net-talk, but mostly to try and get a theoretical
thread going.
 
How about this:  Why do many organisms have aggrgated distributions??
In particular, whay do many microorganisms (like plant pathogens, or
endophytes) have such aggregated distributions??  Could it be that
there is a shortage of "good" hosts, so those hosts which are good tend
to be "over used".  This could then lead to competition etc etc etc.
What competitive strategy would microorganisms adopt to increase their
chance of a positive outcome??  When I say strategy, I don't mean how they wage
warfare in these situatuations.   I mean from a population genetics
and gene frequency perspective.  What strategy would increase the
frequency of a certain geneotype, relative to others, when resources are
limited, over saturated (at least locally), and aggregation over a certain
density is detrimental (i.e. a density dependant phenomenon).
 
Cheers Dennis

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From: [email-masked] (Peter Herman x5495)
Date: 22 Jun 1995 20:57:18 -0700

On 22 Jun 1995, Walter K Dodds wrote:

> [email-masked] (Dennis) writes:
> 
> >How about this:  Why do many organisms have aggrgated distributions?
> 
> 
> 
> Because the abiotic factors that ultimately drive them are patchy?
> 
> 
We certinly see this pattern with fre-living fixers.  The proportion of 
all nitrogen efficient guild (NEG) members which can fix N is much higher 
in the rhizoplane where C is more abundant than in adjacent bulk soil.  
Total NEG counts in a black gramma grassland are 40 fold higher in 
rhizoplane soil and the proportion of fixers goes from < 25% in bulk soil 
to ~75% on the rhizoplane 

*   Peter Herman, Dept. of Biology	Phone: +1 505 646 4532    *
*   New Mexico State University		Fax:   +1 505 646 5665    *
*   Box 30001, Dept. 3AF					  *
*   Las Cruces, NM 88003 USA		e-mail [email-masked]    *

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From: [email-masked] (Walter K Dodds)
Date: 22 Jun 1995 11:56:47 -0500