“Save the whales. Collect the whole
set”
“Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow”
“Ambition is a poor excuse for not
having enough sense to be lazy
U6110 Syllabus: Course Outline
• Designed to foster understanding of the structure and
function of land-based environmental systems and their
management. The course focuses on an investigation of
the mechanisms and interconnections found within and
among components of land resource systems and with
associated human systems.
• Objectives:
– To define an interdisciplinary approach to address land-based
environmental problems and issues.
– To develop appropriate skills related to geographical information
systems and database structure/functioning.
– To develop skills needed to recognize and analyze the
relationships among the scientific, technological, societal and
economic issues that shape environmental research and decisionmaking.
U6110 Syllabus: Grading (activities)
Populations and Land Use (50% each)
 Labs: 50% (5 formal labs)
 Mostly minds-on experiments with
computers. Lab report due (make sure you
respect scientific format!)
 Final (Inclusive): 30%
 Quizzes: 10%
 Field Trip Report: 10%
Today
• Intro to Evolution:
“Why the tail can’t wag the dog…”
• Terrestrial Ecosystems & Environmental Science
Evolution
“The peacock’s tail”: A history of complexity…
a) The most complex creatures have tended to
increase in elaboration through time, and
b) Humans are, by far, the most complex creatures
of life’s tree
Evolution:
Variation vs. Complexity
“Why the tail can’t wag the dog…”
Trends and the proper use of central tendencies:
Evolution of “complexity” in simple organisms
Variation vs. Complexity
Forams and the third try
Variation vs. Complexity
In this situation, life’s “mean”
complexity may have increased,
the “mean” is a terrible measure
(and “mode” proper) of
“average” or “central tendency”
in highly skewed distributions
However  There is a constant
argument which postulates that
an expanding right tail
demonstrates a predictable
upward thrust of the whole
Variation vs. Complexity
The drunkard’s walk and the law of statistics
-) Life has a necessary origin near the left wall (“you
can’t precipitated a lion out of the primordial soup”)
-) When there is a necessary origin near the left wall 
the only way to go is right towards increase in numbers
and kinds (increase in variation)
Variation vs. Complexity
Cope’s Rule and the increase in body size
along evolutionary lineages
-) Cope’s rule identifies a predominant relative
frequency, not an absolute statement.
-) All traditional interpretations of Cope’s rule have
been framed in terms of supposed evolutionary
advantages for larger bodies (there must be one to
survive).
-) The apparent trend is more of increase range of
variation rather than absolute size
Variation vs. Complexity
Cope’s Rule and the increase in body size
along evolutionary lineages – Really?
During the evolution of forams (for example), there exists
no preference for increasing size in speciation event
Variation vs. Complexity
It seems that Cope’s
Rule is driven by an
increase in variance
rather than a simple
directional trend in
body size.
Size increase, is thus
no more than random
evolution away from
small size.
Variation vs. Complexity
Cope’s other Rule of “the unspecialized” states that
founding members of highly successful lineages tend to
be small and unspecialized (can tolerate a wide range of
environmental conditions and changes) and do not
possess complex and highly specific adaptations to
narrow behaviors or modes of life (the peacock and the
panda).
 No directed evolution towards large size or
complexity!
The modal bacter
“Why the tail can’t wag the dog…”
The most desired ingredient of western comfort rests in
finding a clear signal of progress measured as some
form of steadily increasing complexity of life as a
whole through time.
Progress, however can only be validated by looking at
extremes
The “upper level attained” is
not a measure of organization
in general”
Driven vs. Passive
There is no direct ancestry between life forms in the
sequence of the right tail of complexity!
But does that mean that complexity can’t be driven?
Driven vs. Passive
Both vertebrate and invertebrate fossil records suggest
that increasing complexity is passive rather than driven.
The modal bacter and Leonardo’s David
“We are glorious accidents of an unpredictable process
with no drive to complexity, not the expected result of
evolutionary principles that yearn to produce a creature
capable of understanding the mode of its own necessary
construction”
The odds of the human experiment are to phenomenal to
replicate…
Human domination of Earth’s Ecosystems
Human alterations of the Earth System in a simplified way
Human domination of Earth’s Ecosystems
Quantification of human “footprint” show that humans now
appropriate 20-60% of life-sustaining resources of the Earth
Human domination of Earth’s Ecosystems
Humans use about 8% of the total primary productivity of the
Oceans  25% for upwellings and 35% for continental shelves
Changes to global biogeochemical cycles
The modern increase in CO2 represents the clearest and best
documented signal of human alteration (30%) of the Earth system.
7
Population (billions)
370
Atmos CO2 (ppm)
5
350
4
330
3
310
2
290
1
0
1750
270
1800
1850
1900
Year
1950
2000
Atmospheric CO2 (ppm)
Human Population (Billions)
6
390
Changes to global biogeochemical cycles
The increase in CO2 is far from being homogeneous
(although the atmosphere is a very well mixed fluid!)
Biotic Changes
Human modification so Earth’s biological resources (its species
and genetically distinct populations) is substantial and growing.
“Extinction” and “invasion” are natural processes, but the
current rate of loss and of transport is, respectively:
- Decreasing genetic/species variability
- Homogenizing Earth’s biota
Land transformation and invasion are the two most significant
causes of biological extinction.
Environmental Change
From an evolutionary point of view, humans are negligible
forms of life (well, almost…) despite the highest level of
complexity attained
From an environmental point of view, humans are central since
their impact is unprecedented (temporal and spatial) on Earth
We cannot afford NOT to be anthropocentrists!
To maintain the anthropocentric view it becomes paramount to
learn how to manage our “land”:
- GIS
- Mass/Energy balances (models/empirical)
- Studies of critical systems (i.e. forests/peatlands:
sources/sinks of CO2)
- Agriculture/Biodiversity
Environmental Change
“There is no clearer illustration of the extent of
human dominance of Earth that the fact that
maintaining the diversity of “wild” species and the
functioning of “wild” ecosystems will require
increasing human involvement!”
Vitousek et al. (1997) Science. Vol. 277