Category:Social Biology

From Eurêka

Sociobiology (orig, Social biology) Systematic study of the biological basis of social behavior that attempts to explain animal behavior in the light of natural selection and other biological processes. It holds human behavior is genetically shaped, like animals which run largely on instinct. It says our behavior is evolved. Sociobiology has a younger sister, evolutionary psychology. Division of biology since the 1970s.

1. Inclusive fitness (Kin selection) Concept of fitness, an individual’s success in reproducing, incorporating the survival and reproductive successive of the creature’s close relatives, such as worker bees, merging Darwin’s focus on individual animals with Mendel’s studies of how distinct genetic traits are transmitted over time, coined by William Donald Hamilton (1936-2000).
   1. Hamilton's rule Mathematical formulation of inclusive fitness, that amounts to the idea that a creature can die for close kin and still spread its genes, since close kin have many genes in common.
2. Extraordinary sex ratios Organism produces far more offspring of one sex than another.
3. Parasite-avoidance hypothesis Most species propagate sexually rather than asexually because sexual reproduction by continually shaking up the genome, helps to keep organisms one step ahead of their parasites, which might be capable of annihilating a population of asexually spawned clones, posited by William D. Hamilton.

Dominant posturing Dominance patterns in various species such as top rats versus the belly-crawling of their subordinates, and the bluster of top baboons versus the rump-presenting submissiveness of subordinates compared with obsequious behavior of human underlings who attend to their bosses. So for instance in both human and walrus communities, the top elite have more. They copulate more, they get more of what they want, and they guard more resources than they need. Humans seem to be ethologically despotic, like chimpanzees; that is, they have a natural predisposition to hammering other people into submission. Except that in human males this is expressed as a “single-minded determination to impose their vision on the world”

Competition dynamic Competition between groups (communities) for survival, the winning group will be stronger because of teamwork, which takes something like cooperation or altruism between members. A group of only selfish individuals is weakened from within.

Heritability index Scale that runs from 0.0 to 1.0, the idea being that behaviors high on the scale are genetic and can not be controlled voluntarily.

Evolutionary psychology Holds that the human mind is not a blank state, but comprises of specialized mental mechanisms for solving problems faced long ago. The question remains, are these mechanisms limited to functions like vision, or do they extend to complex behavior. It holds that our daily routines and our choices are not nearly as spontaneous as we think because our behavior and our emotions are determined by the long tracks of natural selection.

1. Environment of evolutionary adaptedness Period in which behavior might have evolved, usually the Pleistocene when humans lived in hunter-gatherer groups, who were fitness maximizers continually strategizing to make the most of their chances of reproduction and survival.
2. Adaptation executors Modern humans who carry out programs written into the minds machinery long ago.

Biogeography Study of the geographical distribution of plants and animals.

Bioessay Procedure for estimating the nature, constitution, or potency of a material by statistically analyzing the reaction that follows its application to living matter.

Biochauvinism Prejudice that biological systems have an intrinsic superiority that will always given them a monopoly on self-reproduction and intelligence.

Vicariance biogeography Study of groups of plants and animals which are descended from a common ancestor but which are now spatially isolated from each other in disjunct or endemic distributions.

Phytogeography Branch of biogeography dealing with the geographic distribution of plants.

1. Phytochorion (pl, Phytochoria) Phytogeographic term used as the unit of flora, i.e. a floristic unit.
2. Polychoria (Liaison taxa) In phytogeography, this is said of plant taxa that occur in two or more phytochoria.
3. Demarcation knot In phytogeography, a measure of the degree of dissimilarity between phytochoria given on a statistical basis. A quotient of 0% indicates identical flora and 100% no common taxa.

Age and area theory Advanced by the British ecologist J. C. Willis to explain how the area occupied by a species is related to its population as a whole. It is simply stated as: statistically speaking, the area occupied by a species is directly proportional to its age as a species, i.e. the longer it has had time to spread, the further it will go. The practical applications of this theory apparently leave something to be desired since, “this is an excellent example of a logically satisfying theory which, unfortunately, so rarely fits the facts that it cannot be supported in its original form.”

Daisyworld Simple approach to geophsyiological modeling where the feedback mechanisms between the geo- and bio-sphere are illustrated using a planet covered with two different types of vegetation (two types of daisies) with different albedos. The growth rate of each type of daisy depends on the local temperature and the local temperature depends on the local albedo due to the areal amount of each type of daisy.

Phytosociology

Phytosociology Description of plant communities, more especially their classification based primarily on floristic rather than life-form or other considerations. The most renowned and extensively used phytosociological scheme is that developed by J. Braum-Blanquet in 1927 and later.

1. Accidental species Rare plant species in a community present either as chance invaders from another community or as relics from a previous community.
2. Exclusive species Plant species that is confined completely or almost completely to a particular community.
3. Indifferent species Plant species with no real affinity for any particular community, but it is not rare.
4. Preferential species Plant species that is present with varying abundance in several communities, but it is especially abundant and vigorous in one particular community.
5. Selective species Plant species found most frequently in a particular community but also present occasionally in others.

Clementsian school One of two major schools of thought in phytosociology in the first half of the 20th cent, the other being the Braun-Blanquet school. This school, based in the USA, identified succession as having the primary role in determining the character of communities. In this view the ‘association’ was the final stable or semi-stable climax community and placed emphasis on the dominants. This school uses a deductive methodology.

Braun-Blanquet school (Zuricho-Montpellier) One of two major schools of thought in phytosociology in the first half of the 20th cent, the other being the Clementsian school. This school, based in Europe, had at its core the concept of the plant association as the basic vegetational unit. The characteristic species were deemed to give a more positive indication of ecological conditions than the dominants, although the latter could also be characteristic species. This school uses an inductive methodology.

Wisconsin school School based on the individualistic concept of the plant association, known for its pioneering use of ordination methods.

Landscape Ecological classification or ecosystem unit used on a local or regional scale. At a scale of 10 to 100 km landscapes are identified, although the detail required for their specification precludes globally accepted terms or definitions. For example, the four main classes of landscape used in Britain, i.e. uplands, marginal uplands, pastoral and arable, do not apply in Mexico or elsewhere.