BIO-8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Falsifiability, Daphne Major, 18 Months
Document Summary
Hypothesis is always falsifiable; can"t use word true. Keep as many variables as possible the same. Requires a control group and a treatment group: modeling/simulation. Establish a qualitative or quantitative image of the basics of complex systems: this step establishes the model. Run model or simulation: analogous to prediction in experimental approach. Determine if result is a pattern seen in nature: ex: determining if population growth rate is exponential, comparative. Take advantage of similar natural circumstances that differ in some one or few attributes: ex: islands and island size. At a particular place and time: functional nature. Ecological: individuals that interact ecologically (ex: via competition: population as a conceptual tool. Populations are rarely discrete (fuzzy boundaries between populations) Defined according to interests of investigator: formal definition. Combination of a, b, and c above. Group of conspecifics at a given place and give time that are interacting reproductively and ecologically: relationship between distribution and abundance.
