Do you think that our species is exempt from "kill-the-winner" predator-prey dynamics? (KTW is the colloquial term for the cyclical dynamic by which phages promote community evenness by reducing the numbers of the most abundant bacterial strains.)
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I wouldn't say that we as a species are exempt from kill-the-winner dynamics, but we are certainly testing it. After all, we bring something to the table which no other species does: our intelligence and technology. Of course, predators are not the biggest threat to the human race. We are as likely to exhaust our resources and poison our environment with waste products thus threatening our own existence (as yeast does in fermentation) before a microbial predator takes us out.
Posted by: Mark | September 27, 2011 at 11:53 AM