SCIENCE

LIVING ON DYNAMIC SURFACES

Introduced by Christian Taylor, Department of Biology, University of Bath, on 22 January 1999

This talk is about research into the dynamic relationship between insects and fungi, using cecid larvae and the fungi they inhabit as a case study.

It will largely focus on patterns and processes which are created, through feedback, by the coexistence of different species within different kingdoms and will show how insects and fungi construct their homes in partnerships within rotting wood.

Let us start with an introduction to the biological world of fungi and insects, highlighting the issue of scale in ecological science, then observe a case-study in the growing woodland, study material in the laboratory and round off with some conclusions.

The methods used to understand ecological interactions illustrate the application of a systemic collaboration between holistic field observations and more reductive laboratory experiments, recognising that the distinction between the two strands of enquiry is largely about the scale of observation. Observation of what? Anything which lives and is dynamic over time, having a relation with its context. An organism's context is the immediate surroundings touching it, which may be other living organisms and tissue fluids within a larger organism, or may be abiotic conditions around it, or a mixture of the two. The context is distinguished from the less-immediate external environment which infuses a woodland habitat with basic conditions, but again, the distinction may be much to do with scale.

Thus the process of wood decay may be speeded up or slowed down according to the pattern of bark loosening. Without bark, many fungi take longer to cause the wool to decay since they have to expend energy in providing their own insulation to protect themselves. If they cannot provide adequate insulation they simply fade away, to be replaced in the decomposition succession.
So, remembering the dynamic life on all these surfaces, let us conclude with some general discussion points:

• that surfaces, the boundaries of living systems, are expansive and change in scale all the time

• that permutations at surfaces lead to dynamic adaptive interfaces or surfaces from which different patterns emerge from those which seeded them

• that there is demonstrable developmental feedback between insects and fungi.

• that this feedback is dynamic according to the heterogeneous pattern of decomposing wood, fungi and insects

• and that changes in pattern incur changes in speed and quantity of processes, such as bark loosening, cavity formation, fungal surface sealing, scale of foreign ambits, scale of life cycles and fecundity, soil formation, refuge allocation from stress and long term fungal decomposer succession.

Christian Taylor