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On the Origins and Dynamics of Biodiversity: the Role of Chance

  • Book
  • © 2010

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alain Pavé

    1. Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, France

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  • This book takes stock of the biological and ecological aspects - from the gene to the ecosystem - to outline a "biological" theory of biodiversity.

  • It shows us how these internal mechanisms are analogous to the mechanical devices that bring about “physical chance”.

  • This book seeks to evaluate the breadth of our knowledge on biodiversity, our possible responses, and the limits of those responses to the spontaneous biological and ecological aspects that we most often overlook.

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xviii
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  2. Questioning Chance

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 1-13

  3. Chance in Living Systems

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 15-78

  4. Lessons for Managing Living Systems

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 79-89

  5. The Contribution of Models and Modelling: Some Examples

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 91-112

  6. Biodiversity and Ecological Theories

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 113-125

  7. Chance and Evolution

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 127-138

  8. Evaluating Biodiversity: The Example of French Guiana

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 139-151

  9. Conclusion

    • Alain Pavé
    Pages 153-159

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 161-178
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Keywords

About this book

Chance is necessary for living systems – from the cell to organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems. It is at the heart of their evolution and diversity. Long considered contingent on other factors, chance both produces random events in the environment, and is the product of endogenous mechanisms - molecular as well as cellular, demographic and ecological. This is how living things have been able to diversify themselves and survive on the planet. Chance is not something to which Life has been subjected; it is quite simply necessary for Life. The endogenous mechanisms that bring it about are at once the products and the engines of evolution, and they also produce biodiversity. These internal mechanisms – veritable “biological roulettes” - are analogous to the mechanical devices that bring about “physical chance”. They can be modeled by analogous mathematical equations. This open the way of a global modeling of biodiversity dynamics, but we need also to gather quantitative data in both the laboratory setting as well as in the field. By examining biodiversity at all scales and all levels, this book seeks to evaluate the breadth of our knowledge on this topical subject, to propose an integrated look at living things, to assess the role of chance in its dynamics, in the evolutionary processes and also to imagine practical consequences on the management of living systems.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tassin-la-Demi-Lune, France

    Alain Pavé

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