Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 10:55:47 -0700 From: "Joseph Kinyon" <corruscate@vivazapata.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2506$foo@default> Subject: spacing out in the sarracenias
David,
Your friend's idea sounds so elegant it must be true! However, being a
naturalist I know that this never seems to be the case in biology-we just
want easy answers! I would say that the density of the population of
insects is part of it, and partly proportional to the fact that many of the
resources Sarracenia need are the ones that insects also need. I would offer
the idea that the population and spacing is due to resources and that
insects are a significant part of the resources. Since populations
fluctuate on a more chaotic level, I imagine the spacing is due to the
patterns and rhythms of the insects in response to the changes in
environment. In the end these dynamically influence each other. If you
were to write a statistical model of the fluctuating resources, insect
density, and spatial arrangement of pitcher plants, you would probably
write in a number of iterative "feedback" equations (hee hee).
P.S. If anyone has tried to reach me, or has sent pictures, my motherboard
fried itself in one happy
clock-failure-memory-burn-up-tweak-the-partition-table-corrupt-any-and-all-d
ata-fiesta. Please re-send, re-contact, especially if I purchased from you,
cause I'd like to do it again:)
P.P.S.: I loved the Nepenthes recipe! Peat moss soup ladled out with a
Sarracenia minor as an appetizer?
Joseph Kinyon
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