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This book presents a unified evolutionary framework based on three
sets of metaphors that will help to consolidate discussions on
evolutionary transitions. Evolution is the unifying principle of
life, making identifying ways to apply evolutionary principles to
tackle existence-threatening crises such as climate change crucial.
A more cohesive evolutionary framework will further the discussions
in this regard and also accelerate the process itself. This book
lays out a framework based on three dualistic classes of metaphors
- time, space, and conflict resolution. Evolutionary transitions
theory shows how metaphors can help us understand selective
diversification, as Darwin described with his "tree of life".
Moreover, the recently proposed Stockholm paradigm demonstrates how
metaphors can help shed light on the emergence of complex
ecosystems that Darwin highlighted with his "tangled bank"
metaphor. Taken together, these ideas offer proactive measures for
coping with existential crises for humanity, such as climate
change. The book will appeal to biologists, philosophers and
historians alike.
This book presents a unified evolutionary framework based on three
sets of metaphors that will help to consolidate discussions on
evolutionary transitions. Evolution is the unifying principle of
life, making identifying ways to apply evolutionary principles to
tackle existence-threatening crises such as climate change crucial.
A more cohesive evolutionary framework will further the discussions
in this regard and also accelerate the process itself. This book
lays out a framework based on three dualistic classes of metaphors
- time, space, and conflict resolution. Evolutionary transitions
theory shows how metaphors can help us understand selective
diversification, as Darwin described with his "tree of life".
Moreover, the recently proposed Stockholm paradigm demonstrates how
metaphors can help shed light on the emergence of complex
ecosystems that Darwin highlighted with his "tangled bank"
metaphor. Taken together, these ideas offer proactive measures for
coping with existential crises for humanity, such as climate
change. The book will appeal to biologists, philosophers and
historians alike.
The contemporary crisis of emerging disease has been a century and
a half in the making. Human, veterinary, and crop health
practitioners convinced themselves that disease could be controlled
by medicating the sick, vaccinating those at risk, and eradicating
the parts of the biosphere responsible for disease transmission.
Evolutionary biologists assured themselves that coevolution between
pathogens and hosts provided a firewall against disease emergence
in new hosts. Most climate scientists made no connection between
climate changes and disease. None of these traditional perspectives
anticipated the onslaught of emerging infectious diseases
confronting humanity today. As this book reveals, a new
understanding of the evolution of pathogen-host systems, called the
Stockholm Paradigm, explains what is happening. The planet is a
minefield of pathogens with preexisting capacities to infect
susceptible but unexposed hosts, needing only the opportunity for
contact. Climate change has always been the major catalyst for such
new opportunities, because it disrupts local ecosystem structure
and allows pathogens and hosts to move. Once pathogens expand to
new hosts, novel variants may emerge, each with new infection
capacities. Mathematical models and real-world examples uniformly
support these ideas. Emerging disease is thus one of the greatest
climate change-related threats confronting humanity. While time is
short, the danger is great, and we are largely unprepared, The
Stockholm Paradigm offers hope for managing the crisis. By using
the DAMA (document, assess, monitor, act) protocol, we can
"anticipate to mitigate" emerging disease, buying time and saving
money while we search for more effective ways to cope with this
challenge.
By combining recent advances in the physical sciences with some of
the novel ideas, techniques, and data of modern biology, this book
attempts to achieve a new and different kind of evolutionary
synthesis. I found it to be challenging, fascinating, infuriating,
and provocative, but certainly not dull.--James H, Brown,
University of New Mexico This book is unquestionably mandatory
reading not only for every living biologist but for generations of
biologists to come.--Jack P. Hailman, Animal Behaviour, review of
the first edition An important contribution to modern evolutionary
thinking. It fortifies the place of Evolutionary Theory among the
other well-established natural laws.--R.Gessink, TAXON
All living things on earth--from individual species to entire
ecosystems--have evolved through time, and evolution is the
acknowledged framework of modern biology. Yet many areas of biology
have moved from a focus on evolution to much narrower perspectives.
Daniel R. Brooks and Deborah A. McLennan argue that it is
impossible to comprehend the nature of life on earth unless
evolution--the history of organisms--is restored to a central
position in research. They demonstrate how the phylogenetic
approach can be integrated with ecological and behavioral studies
to produce a richer and more complete picture of evolution. Clearly
setting out the conceptual, methodological, and empirical
foundations of their research program, Brooks and McLennan show how
scientists can use it to unravel the evolutionary history of
virtually any characteristic of any living thing, from behaviors to
ecosystems. They illustrate and test their approach with examples
drawn from a wide variety of species and habitats.
"The Nature of Diversity" provides a powerful new tool for
understanding, documenting, and preserving the world's
biodiversity. It is an essential book for biologists working in
evolution, ecology, behavior, conservation, and systematics. The
argument in "The Nature of Diversity" greatly expands upon and
refines the arguments made in the authors' previous book
P"hylogeny, Ecology, and Behavior."
The merits of this work are many. A rigorous integration of
phylogenetic hypotheses into studies of adaptation, adaptive
radiation, and coevolution is absolutely necessary and can change
dramatically our collective 'gestalt' about much in evolutionary
biology. The authors advance and illustrate this thesis
beautifully. The writing is often lucid, the examples are plentiful
and diverse, and the juxtaposition of examples from different
biological systems argues forcefully for the validity of the
thesis. Many new insights are offered here, and the work is usually
accessible to both the practiced phylogeneticist and the naive
ecologist.--Joseph Travis, Florida State University [Phylogeny,
Ecology, and Behavior] presents its arguments forcefully and
cogently, with ample . . .support. Brooks and McLennan conclude as
they began, with the comment that evolution is a result, not a
process, and that it is the result of an interaction of a variety
of processes, environmental and historical. Evolutionary
explanations must consider all these components, else they are
incomplete. As Darwin's explanations of descent with modification
integrated genealogical and ecological information, so must workers
now incorporate historical and nonhistorical, and biological and
nonbiological, processes in their evolutionary
perspective.--Marvalee H. Wake, Bioscience This book is
well-written and thought-provoking, and should be read by those of
us who do not routinely turn to phylogenetic analysis when
investigating adaptation, evolutionary ecology and
co-evolution.--Mark R. MacNair, Journal of Natural History
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