/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15390095

.. so overall, the oscillation in case of our mice here (ignoring for simplicity's sake how it interacts with the environment and vice versa) does slowly but steadily (ok, often exponentially) shift the colony into a "new" set of conditions which previously did not apply ... for example higher population density (favoring transmission of disease), increased stress (inhibiting resistance mechanisms), loss of resilience (in favor of "outgrowing" the competition by more fertility). The current trajectory of the oscillating line becomes unstable then, and usually some otherwise even "minor" outside disturbance (the discontinuity event) will then trigger or even catalyze the trajectory reversal of our oscillating line. The new set of conditions comes into full effect, selective factors flip from the previous set to the new one. Thing is, we can assume that most species on a total gene pool level are actually adapted to just such an oscillation ... could even call it their own "personal" Schwingung (again without looking at environment interactions). Now the colony collapse might appear catastrophic for those caught up in it but for the species it is simply business as usual, it is almost even THE adaptive mode ensuring its survival if seen over longer time intervals ... or several peaks of the oscillation.