Think global - Act local

After the World Congress, I still enthuse about Daniel Alkon's and Roger Croll's papers, which demonstrated how cellular structures and mechanisms underlying behaviour are conserved across molluscan groups, and even phyla. Equally impressive are the parallels in biological rhythms shown by animals, plants and fungi, where similar genetic sequences seems to be involved, despite obviously different physiological mechanisms. This conservatism seems to arise as organisms add new "front-end" processes onto old ones, but the properties of the materials limit the ways of using them for a specific task - so a peripheral neuron codes the intensity of its message by the frequency of its nerve impulses, because it can't send impulses of different sizes.

In ecology, too, the properties of the biological materials dictate rules of interaction. So a European would recognize an Australian forest as a forest although it may not possess a single species in common with a European forest. Similar trophic interactions occur in all ecosystems. Uncovering the basic rules which apply broadly across the biological spectrum, and understanding the mechanisms by which those rules are applied, modified, or re-combined allows malacologists to set their work into a broader framework. For example, terrestrial workers might usefully consider the advances in marine ecology described at our Annual Meeting by Steve Hawkins. We should adapt the environmentalists' exhortation to 'think global and act local'.

I am grateful to everyone who has contributed items for the Bulletin. Please send items for the next half-yearly Bulletin (Number 32, February 1999) to reach me by mid-January. Keep articles simple and succinct, and, where appropriate, include a reference and an illustration.

Bill Bailey

 

TAXONOMIC / NOMENCLATURAL DISCLAIMER

This publication is not deemed to be valid for taxonomic/nomenclatural purposes [see Article 8b in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 3rd Edition (1985) edited by W. D. Ride et al.].