Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Apologies in advance for this one – it’s arcane. A student made this mistake and I recognized it immediately as an eggcorn, but I waited till the forum was particularly calm to submit it. I justify these submissions, to myself, by reference to Pat’s stated objective of collecting every eggcorn in existence on the forum.
An Allee effect occurs when a biological population experiences a reduced growth rate at low population density. Normally, low population density should mean greater resources, less competition and therefore enhanced growth. Some animals and plants fall into a kind of positive feedback death spiral when they are “undercrowded,” due to trouble finding mates, increased predation rates, or especially, consanguinity and the genetic decline associated with it. The Allee effect is named after Warder Allee, an ecologist who noted the problem in the 1930s. The Allele effect would be an apt way of describing the genetic problems of small populations. An allele is one of the many possible versions of a gene; substandard alleles can become common and cause problems in small populations.
As I said, arcane.
Our results indicate that trees at low density receive fewer compatible pollen, thereby limiting fruit set and, potentially, population recovery. Thus S. siamensis may be subject to the Allele effect (Burgman et al. 1992), where population viability is reduced disproportionately with a decline in size
Forestry article
Population fragmentation may reduce fertility to zero in Banksia goodii – demonstration of the Allele effect.
Biodiversity article
Because the Allele effect suggests that some populations might have minimal sizes (M) above 0 that must be maintained in order to remain viable
Ecotoxicology book
For the High Brown Fritillary an allele effect is apparent with low growth rates at low pop densities, and immigration key in colony survival and species persistence. ... An allele effect is evident in three quarters of High Brown Fritillary local populations, highlighting the need to increase resource availability in both occupied and unoccupied sites.
Butterfly conservation
Sort of what might happen to a forum if no new members have been admitted for several years. But only if we try to reproduce, I guess, and that ain’t gonna happen.
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