Re: chimps on the savanna? Nooooo.....

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
31 Oct 1995 23:52:12 -0500

pnich@globalone.net (Phil Nicholls) writes:

>Savannah's are not treeless. They are very different from steppes or
>the American prairie.

I guess now Mosaic Savanah is a savannah with a river and two lakes :-)

Ok. I stop being ornery now. I got the picture already. Yes, savannah
has already been redefined as being a steppe,prairie,grassland with
some wood.

>Yes, there is. Savannah mosaic refers the transitional zone between
>closed canopy forest and savannah.

Oh, oh. Now the word mosaic has been perverted too.

OK. I'll check CEHE and see what number they have assigned to this.

Let's see what we got: the most extreme end we have three tree
canopies and tow of bush and ground cover. At the other extreme
we have grass cover. So since savannah now means wood (or is it
bush) and grass (!??) this must be something between woodland
and Montane Forest. So then it has a main canopy and bush canopy
plus grass cover. Is this it? It doesn't sound much like a
savannah to me. It sounds a lot like "forest".

Would you please check CEHE p. 192 and tell us what you mean.

>"Habitat: Tropical rain forest, forest savannah mosaic and deciduous
>woodland in hilly country; also found in montaine forest up to 10,000
>ft.

It looks like 'forest savannah mosaic" is something brand new
and in between decidous forest and montaine forest. On a scale of
0 to 10 it looks like 3. What is 'mosaic savannah'? is it 6?

>Now I know you mathematicians don't like dealing with actual data, but
>you can't just continue to ignore it just because it destroys your
>nice theoretical construct.

I'm not a mathematician and I don't have any problems with
data. I even don't have problems with fuzzy data. What I do
have problems with are pure verbiage which refuses to get
pinned down.

I don't have any problems with verbal models either. Sometimes
that's the best that can be done. However I think the future is
still to turn them into quantitative data. I love equations of
all sorts. They say a lot. I love plots even more.

------------------------------------------------------------
BTW, here's a post I found looking for someone to work in the
field of complexity at the Santa Fe Institute:

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POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS AT THE SANTA FE INSTITUTE

The Institute's research program is devoted to the study of complex
systems, especially complex adaptive systems. Systems and techniques
currently under study include: the economy; the immune system; the
brain; biomolecular sequence and structure; the origin of life;
artificial life; models of evolution; adaptive computation and
intelligent systems; complexity, entropy, and the physics of
information; nonlinear modeling and prediction; the evolution of
culture; the development of general-purpose simulation environments;
and others. Postdoctoral Fellows work either on existing research
projects or on projects of their own choosing.

Candidates should have a Ph.D. (or expect to receive one
before September 1996) and should have backgrounds in
computer science, mathematics, economics, theoretical physics
or chemistry, game theory, cognitive science, theoretical
biology, dynamical systems theory, or related fields. A
strong background in computational approaches is essential,
as is an interest in interdisciplinary work. Evidence of
this interest, in the form of previous research experience
and publications, is important.

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				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey