A recent column in the Globe & Mail reminded me of our Federal Government’s plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: the One Tonne Challenge.
This campaign challenges each Canadian to reduce their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by one tonne. The first step is to calculate your emissions and then implement recommendations for reductions. According to the online calculator, Kelly & I combined emit 4.23 tonnes annually. Fortunately, this is below the national average of 5.
Yet another useful site from Google: Google Scholar. The site provides an interface for searching the scientific literature with typical Google ease. Some preliminary tests suggest that it is quite effective at finding relevant literature.
I’ve written a script that imports a JSTOR citation page into BibDesk. To use the script, I suggest adding it to your script menu. Then, with the JSTOR citation page as the active web page in Safari, run the script and the citation will be added to the active BibDesk file. I use the first author’s last name and last two digits of the year as a cite key (e.g. Darwin59), you may want to change this to suit your style.
An interesting read from Wired News – The Crusade Against Evolution. In addition, the Panda’s thumb has been following and carefully dissecting the recent controversy over an intelligent design paper being published in a peer-reviewed journal. The evolution-creation debate seems to be resurfacing after a short time off. The debate is important and the intelligent design supporters have to be countered, but their arguments have become hackneyed.
Plants are sessile and, consequently, many species rely on pollinators for mating opportunities. However, pollinators do not necessarily visit every individual in a population with equal frequency. Plant attributes, such as floral display and reward provisioning, can influence the frequency of pollinator visitation. Furthermore, aspects of population density and structure may also influence visitation patterns. One effect of this unequal distribution of pollinator activity is that pollinators create networks of connections between plants in which a few plant receive many visits and many plants receive few visits.
There’s a powerful approach to modelling called dynamic state variable programming, covered in Dynamic State Variable Models In Ecology by Clark & Mangel. I’ll post more about the approach sometime, but for now I wanted to make an example from the book available. The first chapter of the book includes a guide through the creation of a patch foraging model. A fully implemented version is available in True BASIC, but I’ve decided to use R for all of my modelling and analyses.
Until recently, I was able to use journal abbreviations in all of my manuscripts. Consequently, my .bib file contains only abbreviations in the journal field. Now I need to produce some bibliographies with full journal names. With a .bib file you can use macros to handle changing abbreviated names to full names. However, BibDesk cannot use macros. Instead I wrote a perl script that searches through a .bib file and creates a new file with journal abbreviations changed to full names.
I have been investigating issues of ovule and seed development recently. One question that has come up is: How much variation is there in seed size? I had analysed some seed set data for some earlier work with some image analysis software. Consequently I have a large data set of seed area and perimeter for Chamerion angustifolium. A rough look at the data is:
The data set is available as seedSizeData.
The Ecological Detective by Ray Hilborn and Marc Mangel is an excellent source for learning how to analyse ecological data with sophistication. Traditionally, ecological data is analysed from the binary perspective of hypothesis testing. The goal of such testing is to either accept or reject a null hypothesis. Although it is well entrenched in ecological training and publication, this hypothesis testing has repeatedly been attacked by statisticians and many ecologists.
In some recent research (http://public.me.com/mroutley/SIandDichogamy.pdf) I had to make inferences about families based on character states of the species within the family. One approach is to use a simple majority rule. For example, if more than half of the species possess character state x rather than y, then the family can be described as x. However, this approach seemed rather liberal, which led to a 2/3 majority criterion: if more than 2/3 of the species are x, the family is x; If less than 1/3 is x the family is y; otherwise the family is ambiguous.
I have been working through my references and papers trying to regain some control over the literature. Being reintroduced to the tedium of reference management, it seems like there must be a better way to catalogue and organize this important component of research. Ideally, with the Internet and some good citation support from publishers, I would never have to type a citation – just automagically download whatever I need. Obviously this is not currently available.
Description:
These data are the average seed set estimates for dichogamous and adichogamous Chamerion angustifolium at different inflorescence sizes. Format:
maternalID: Identification code for the maternal plant (i.e., grandmother of the counted seeds). individualID: Identification code of the plant. array#: The array identification number. dichogamyType: Indicates if the plant was dichogamous. flowerPosition: Flowers were sampled from either the bottom or top of the inflorescence. inflorescenceSize: The number of open flowers on each plant in the array.
Routley, M.B. The evolutionary significance of being one gender at a time. Ecology Division Seminar Series, University of Calgary
Download https://matt.routleynet.org/uploads/2020/97fb2da280.pdf
Description:
These data are the average siring-success estimates for dichogamous and adichogamous Chamerion angustifolium. Siring success is estimated from the proportion of heterozygous progeny produced at the PGI locus. Dichogamy classes were homozygous for alternate PGI alleles, so that heterozygous progeny represent interclass pollen transfer. Format:
Array: The array identification number. DichogamyType: The dichogamy status of the plants in the array. FlowerSize: The number of open flowers on each plant in the array.
Description:
These data are pollen counts from stigmas after single bee visits in populations of Chamerion angustifolium from Montana. Pollen was quantified with a Beckman-Coulter Multisizer 3 particle counter. Format:
Ploidy: The cytotype of sampled plant, either tetraploid or diploid. AntherPresence: Some flowers had their anthers removed with forceps. Others were left intact. PollenCount: The estimated amount of pollen deposited on the stigma. Citation:
PhD thesis MRoutleyThesis.pdf Download:
MontanaPollenDeposition.txt
These data are pollen counts from anthers before and after single bee visits in populations of Chamerion angustifolium from Montana. Pollen was quantified with a Beckman-Coulter Multisizer 3 particle counter. Format:
Population: The population sampled, either tetraploid or diploid. Sample: An identification code representing the plant and flower sampled. StigmaPresence: Some flowers had their stigma and style removed with forceps. Others were left intact. Visitation: Whether the anther was sampled before or after a single bee visit.
Unrelated to my “official” thesis work, I have been thinking about floral form and its influence on plant fitness. As an excuse to start a discussion with anyone interested, I’ve posted this overview of what I hope to work on next.
Plant mating systems control the transmission of genes between generations and, therefore, are a fundamental characteristic of populations. Since flowers are the reproductive organs of plants, floral form fundamentally influences plant mating systems.