On the Emergence of Intersexual Selection: Arbitrary Trait Preference Improves Female-Male Coevolution

Sexual selection is a fundamental aspect of evolution for all eukaryotic organisms with mating types. This article suggests intersexual selection is best viewed as a mechanism with which to compensate for the unavoidable dynamics of coevolution between sexes that emerge with isogamy. Using the NKCS model it is shown by varying fitness landscape size, ruggedness, and connectedness, how a purely arbitrary trait preference sexual selection mechanism proves beneficial with high dependence between the sexes. This is found to be the case whether one or both sexes exploit such intersexual selection.

Random location of fuel treatments in wildland community interfaces: a percolation approach

We explore the use of spatially correlated random treatments to reduce fuels in landscape patterns that appear somewhat natural while forming fully connected fuelbreaks between wildland forests and developed protection zones. From treatment zone maps partitioned into grids of hexagonal forest cells representing potential treatment sites, we selected cells to be treated at random using an algorithm that provides a varying degree of treatment clustering. One thousand or more such maps were used as sample replicates for parameter settings that included landscape size, fraction of area treated, and degree of clustering to test whether continuous fuelbreaks were formed in an acceptable proportion of cases. A shortest path network optimization model was solved for each sample landscape to determine the presence or absence of a continuous fuelbreak and to measure the length of the most direct fuelbreak when one or more were present. By varying the fraction of area treated in a bisection search, we were able to estimate the minimum amount of treatment needed. Results indicated that between 54% and 88% of a forest would need to be treated to form fuelbreaks in 60% or more of the landscapes we modeled.

SERA-IEG-27: Nursery Crop and Landscape Systems; Plant Evaluation Program

SERA-IEG-27, Southern Extension and Research Activities–Information Exchange Group–27, is sponsored by the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors. Thirteen states cooperate with Official Representatives from Extension and Research programs. The objective of the group is to identify, evaluate, select, and disseminate information on superior environmentally sustainable landscape plants for nursery crop production and landscape systems in the Southeast. Plants are distributed to those responding to a request for plant evaluation cooperation. Those that agree to cooperate are expected to grow a liner to landscape size, plant it in an landscape setting and evaluate the plant (numerically, a scale of 1–10 for insect damage, disease damage, cold damage, heat stress, growth rate, flower, fruit, fall color, production potential, landscape potential, invasive potential, and insect disease transmission potential, as well as plant height and width and time/duration of bloom). Following evaluation the group is to collectively and individually disseminate information gained from the plant evaluation system to a wide variety of audiences.