EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Lion Mosaic

Lion (Panthera leo)
Masai Mara, Kenya, Africa

Explanation:  Mouse over this week's picture ... and view the original image.  Then click on this week's picture ... and view the many tiny photos that comprise this week's mosaic image (all photos I took in the Masai Mara of southern Kenya).

There's an ecological lesson here, beyond the fun photographic effects.

It has to do with scale.

Sometimes patterns emerge at a broader scale (like this week's image) that are not evident close up (like when you click on the image).  Some ecologists refer to this as "emergent properties."  Some call it not seeing the forest for the trees.  

Here's an example.  During my visit to the Masai Mara of southern Kenya (which is continuous with the Serengeti of Tanzania to the south), we saw many tracks and trails in the savanna grasslands, made by elephants and many other ungulate species.  We also saw many scattered, large termite mounds.  All very interesting.  

But I did not see the fuller picture until we flew over the grasslands in a small plane and saw how many of the the tracks and trails converged to the termite mounds (as presented in a previous EPOW).  Likely this was from a number of species and reasons.  For example, I saw how antelopes often stand on the top or sides of termite mounds to assert their dominance in the herd; I photographed bat-eared fox family groups laying on the termite mounds at cool times of dawn and dusk because the termite activity generates heat and warms the mound; mongooses dig into the mounds to create protective burrows; and many other species use the mounds in other ways for shelter and food sources.  

Only from that aerial vantage did I see the forest for the trees -- that is, the emergent property and value of termite mounds on the savanna. 

Information:
     Breckling, B., F. Müller, H. Reuter, F. Hölker, and O. Fränzle.  2005.  Emergent properties in individual-based ecological models—introducing case studies in an ecosystem research context.  Ecological Modelling 186(4):376-388.
     Kawata, M.  1995.  Emergent and effective properties in ecology and evolution.  Researchers on Population Ecology 37(1):93-96.