BLOG::summitstudio

2008-06-06 【TIMS Activity 】
Synchronous reproduction and its evolution 
　陳毓昀 ( National Center for Theoretical Sciences )

（直接貼 Abstract上來的話大概沒人想點進來看了...）
　其實光看標題並不是很吸引人，或者說看不太懂這個題目的意思。畢竟這個主題其實不太被大眾注意，更何況數學系的人還蠻故步自封不喜歡唸些生物啦化學啦或是社會科學的東西的。Synchronous reproduction（大量重製）直接翻起來怪怪的，不過講起來其實很簡單易懂：就是植物會在某個時間集體地產生大量的種子，那這現象尤其在熱帶植物特別顯著。

Synchronous reproduction and its evolution

Yu-Yun Chen
National Center for Theoretical Sciences

Abstract

Masting fruiting is a fascinating plant reproductive phenomenon that occurs in forests worldwide. In some years, plants flower and fruit synchronously and as a consequence, a great number of seeds are produced. This phenomenon is called masting and has significant importance to forests. Many hypotheses were proposed to explain the rise of this phenomenon. However, empirical tests to these hypotheses are limited and only a few modeling attempts were made. In this talk, I will give some ideas about masting and its features. I will also present and explain various hypotheses associated with masting and empirical tests to some of the hypotheses. I will then talk about a mathematical model built specifically to explore the influence of the pollination facilitation hypothesis to synchronous reproduction behavior in plants. Finally, as a conclusion, I will talk about the future directions associated with masting phenomenon. 

　其實做這種生物相關的工作，有很大量的都是 Dirty work，收集數據、長期觀察等等，像這個研究就花了六年幾千萬的資源下去（在東南亞的熱帶雨林採集、觀測），自己以前是還頗有興趣的啦（不然高中也不會唸三類）；雖然現在走上數學的道路，不過基礎科學本來就是可以互通有無的，像他們這個計畫就引入了一些簡單的數學模型，而得到的結果就目前來說算是差強人意。
　數學建模不一定能真正建構出真實世界的完整面貌，但可以為我們對自然的了解開啟一扇一扇的小窗，從中去增進我們對現象世界的認知。由知識建構模型，又由模型增加知識，這就是數學建模。