Tolerance.ca
Director / Editor: Victor Teboul, Ph.D.
Looking inside ourselves and out at the world
Independent and neutral with regard to all political and religious orientations, Tolerance.ca® aims to promote awareness of the major democratic principles on which tolerance is based.

How do ecosystems collapse? Our study shows evolution plays a role – and can delay a disaster

By Christopher Blake, PhD Student, Monash University
Michael J. McDonald, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Monash University
Dying coral reefs, rainforests transforming into savannas, grasslands turning into deserts – these are ecosystem “tipping points”, boundary lines we’re desperate not to cross.

In dynamic systems filled with life, these critical thresholds aren’t set in stone. Since organisms can evolve, the tipping points within these ecosystems might evolve too.

Most of us think of evolution as a glacial process, too slow to witness in a single lifetime. But evolution, especially in the microbial world, can happen very…The Conversation


Read complete article

© The Conversation -
Subscribe to Tolerance.ca


Follow us on ...
Facebook Twitter