Talk:Unified neutral theory of biodiversity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1. with probability 1 − m, pick two individuals at random from the local community. If they belong to the same species, no action is taken. Otherwise, with equal probability, replace one of the individuals with the offspring of the other. In other words, the two individuals serve as candidates for death and parentood.
2. with probability m, pick one individual at random from the local community. Replace it by a new individual chosen with a probability proportional to the abundance of the species in the metacommunity. This corresponds to the death of the chosen individual in the local community followd by the arrival of an immigrant from the metacommunity.

Contents 1 Stochastic modelling of species abundances under the UNTB 2 Contradicting Darwinism 3 Page title 4 Niche construction = niche assembly? 5 Hubbell article 6 Relevance of R programming language? 7 BUY-ME-NOW!

[edit] Stochastic modelling of species abundances under the UNTB

1. What is meant by "It is always possible to rescale so that &m1=1."? Also, the symbol isn't displayed correctly (missing ';') This line stands just above the Example in the section. Eef (A) 11:22, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hi Eef

Thanks for your interest.

The line should read mu=1. One can always rescale the time increment so that this is correct. I'll change the article accordingly.

best wishes

Robinh 12:53, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I am currently preparing a talk on the UNTB and have read the relevant papers [Hubbell 2001 (of course)], [Vallade,Houchmandzadeh 2003 [1]], [Volkov, Hubbell 2003 [2]] and [Etienne 2005 [3]] describing the urn processes in the metacommunity and the local community. I think this distinction is not made clear in this section. In fact, the transition probabilities given are those in a completely isolated community with absorbing states of single species dominance. This is a notice, that I have decided to completely rewrite this section. --Ralf 07 Feb 2007

Yup, this isn't made clear. My own research is in the isolated case, so that's what I focussed on when I wrote it. The isolated case is, as you point out, simpler. Good luck with the rewrite! Robinh 16:03, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Contradicting Darwinism

Does it really? I didn't read it to contradict "survival of the fittest", did I miss that bit? Guettarda 23:48, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi. I didn't edit that bit of the article, so I can't be sure what the author intended, but the UNTB does specifically contradict "survival of the fittest" but none of Darwin's theories. I nearly reverted the edit until I actually read survival of the fittest!

best wishes Robinh 08:35, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually I posted that question while I thought the author was still editing, and was hoping they would explain what they meant. But I should have read the link. I wonder if it makes sense to leave since it seems to reduce the clarity of the article...on the other hand, if you read the link it hits home the idea that the UNTB goes against the idea of competition structuring communities. Of course my take when I read the book (which was about 2 years ago) was that Hubbell backed away from saying that competition did not play a role (since there was an uptick in the 7 most abundant species), but rather, that a neutral model could explain much of the behaviour of the system. Of course my memory might be putting my own thoughts onto Hubbell's words. Guettarda 13:47, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hello Guettarda

I think you put your finger on the nail when you say that "a neutral model could explain much of the behaviour of the system". If true, this doesn't mean that competition has zero effect, just zero measurable effect on species abundance curves. My take on it is that any species with a genuine Darwinian disadvantage would have disappeared a long time ago. Still, I think the edit should stand: I for one found it very apposite (and indeed informative). I would says that the UNTB is so humoungously nonintuitive precisely because a cursory understanding of it appears to be at odds with a cursory understanding of Darwin. Of course there is no real contradiction: the contradiction is between UNTB and survival of the fittest. I think the edit goes a long way towards clarifying this issue (which isn't to say that it couldn't be improved still further!)

best wishes Robinh 14:00, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Page title

An anon did a cut and paste move to Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography via Unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography, which I've reverted to preserve the history. I've no opinion on the page title myself, but if it should be moved it'll need to be done by an admin (or via WP:RM). sjorford:// 21:54, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Niche construction = niche assembly?

I assumed these were equivalent in my most recent edit prior to this post. - Samsara 01:27, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I Can talk Filefire 12:35, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hubbell article

I've started a Stephen P. Hubbell article. Some of you who are familiar with Professor Hubbell may wish to edit/contribute. I'm a layman; I can hardly spell UNTB. Thanks. — Muffuletta 00:43, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Relevance of R programming language?

The R programming language can be used to show that the maximum likelihood estimate for θ is about 1.1478.

I would suggest replacing "the R programming language" with something more general like "numerical methods," unless there's some reason why the language is important. Surely you are just maximizing a function, which can be done by any number of methods... such as "a graphite pencil and a sheet of recycled paper"? Mtford 09:51, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi Mtford. When I wrote this I had just completed a suite of R software that computed θ. I have a paper that discusses the method under review at Journal of Statistical Software right now, so I'll rephrase the article now, and put a citation in when (if?) it gets accepted. Best wishes, Robinh 08:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BUY-ME-NOW!

"The Unified Theory makes a large number of falsifiable hypotheses."

"The Unified Theory also makes predictions that have profound implications for the management of biodiversity, especially the management of rare species."

BUY NOW!

And one more funny thing: the list of "notable proponents" includes only the author himself. Come on...

Llnoba 17:58, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Please be specific about what you consider non-neutral about this article. Guettarda 18:14, 2 February 2007 (UTC)