Monthly Archives: September 2011

There’s Dirt Under Them Thar Sidewalks

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Chris Jensen

Sometimes I think that it is all too easy in New York City to forget one’s connection to natural systems: we have seemingly domesticated everything. Sewer systems replace rivers and streams, trees are methodically planted in evenly-spaced holes in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Microbial Ecology, Soil Ecology, Urban Ecology | Leave a comment

Costly signalling not so costly in the presence of comrades

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Chris Jensen

This month’s issue of PLoS Computational Biology contained an interesting article entitled “Signalling and the Evolution of Cooperative Foraging in Dynamic Environments“. Authored by Colin J. Torney, Andrew Berdahl, Iain D. Couzin (all of Princeton University), the article seeks to … Continue reading →

Posted in Altruism, Articles, Cooperation, Game Theory, Group Selection, Individual-based Models, Modeling (General), Reciprocity, Spatially Explicit Modeling | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

HOME, a documentary about the impacted Biosphere

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Chris Jensen

I just watched the video Home, a production of Yann Arthus-Bertrand and his Good Planet Foundation. Composed solely of high-quality panoramic images intensified by a soaring new-age soundtrack, the film provides viewers with a fairly comprehensive overview of the earth’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropogenic Change, Biodiversity Loss, Biomes, Bogs & Wetlands, Carrying Capacity, Climate Change, Ecology, Ecology Education, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Extinction, Film & Television, Food, Freshwater Ecosystems, Hunger, Mangrove Forests, Marine Ecosystems, MSCI-270, Ecology, Pollution, Population Pressure, Public Policy, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, System Stability, Taiga (Boreal Forest), Temperate Forest, Terrestrial, Tropical Forest, Tundra, Vegetarianism, Water Supply | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Eco-mysticism in the Ecology Classroom, Discontinuity in Evolutionary Theory

Posted on September 17, 2011 by Chris Jensen

After many semesters teaching an introductory Ecology course to non-majors, I have gotten a pretty good sense of the misconceptions that they bring to the subject. Most students receive little or no high school education in ecology: the majority of … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology Education, Evolution, MSCI-270, Ecology, System Stability, Teaching | Leave a comment

Naturalistic Fallacy: 1, Sam Harris: 0

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Chris Jensen

For those who don’t know Sam Harris, he is a rather famous critic of theism who often invokes science and broad rationalism in his arguments for the abandonment of organized religion. Along with Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Memetic Fitness, Multilevel Selection, Philosophy, Radio & Podcasts, Religion, Talks & Seminars, Web | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Patterns in mussel beds may reflect interaction between individual behavior and emergent environmental patterns

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Chris Jensen

Mussel beds off of Polzeath, United Kingdom (photo by Andy F) Natural selection is often oversimplified as the effect of the outside environment on the survival and reproduction probability of individual organisms. In the end this perspective has some value: … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Cooperation, Emergence, Individual-based Models, Intertidal Zones, Population Growth, Spatially Explicit Modeling | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Online tools for teaching the basics of population growth

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Chris Jensen

The Otherwise population growth simulator In what now seems like an infamous episode in my early career, I once tried to deliver a sample lesson on population growth during an all-day interview for a full-time teaching position at a fairly … Continue reading →

Posted in Carrying Capacity, Ecological Modeling, Educational Software and Apps, MSCI-270, Ecology, Population Growth | 2 Comments