CSR Theory vs r/K Selection Theory

Nathan asks in the comments:

what do you think of CSR theory as a refinement of r/K? I read a bit about it from an author named Grimes.

I confess never having heard of CSR Theory before, probably because up until recently it was primarily applied to plants, but on a cursory examination, the different stresses that each strategy is designed to confront in C, S, and R seem to correlate to the stresses which K, r/K breakdown, and r are designed to confront. The main difference would seem to be that in plants, competition may favor larger growth and larger production of seeds/offspring to spread to new, and possibly more suitable, ecosystems.

From Wikipedia, which describes the theory as being primarily applied to plants (though Grimes seems to want to branch it out, and rightly so):

Competitors

Competitors are plant species that thrive in areas of low intensity stress and disturbance and excel in biological competition. These species are able to out compete other plants by most efficiently tapping into available resources. Competitors do this through a combination of favorable characteristics, including rapid growth rate, high productivity (growth in height, lateral spread, and root mass), and high capacity for phenotypic plasticity. This last feature allows competitors to be highly flexible in morphology and adjust the allocation of resources throughout the various parts of the plant as needed over the course of the growing season.

Stress tolerators

Stress tolerators are plant species that live in areas of high intensity stress and low intensity disturbance. Species that have adapted this strategy generally have slow growth rates, long lived leaves, high rates of nutrient retention, and low phenotypic plasticity. Stress tolerators respond to environmental stresses through physiological variability. These species are often found in stressful environments such as alpine or arid habitats, deep shade, nutrient deficient soils, and areas of extreme pH levels.

Ruderals

Ruderals are plant species that prosper in situations of high intensity disturbance and low intensity stress. These species are fast-growing and rapidly complete their life cycles, and generally produce large amounts of seeds. Plants that have adapted this strategy are often found colonizing recently disturbed land, and are often annuals.

Competitors try to outcompete others around them in environments where environmental resources allow enough density to yield individual interaction/competition and survival of the most competitive (in this case the competition is to eat nutrients first). Stress tolerators survive harsh/scarce conditions which limit numbers/density and competition/interaction between individuals. Ruderals just multiply as fast as possible to out reproduce everyone around them in free resources, where mortality isn’t selective and only the most fecund thrive. K, r/K breakdown, and r.

I am not sure it will hold up well as a widely applicable generalization outside of plants without some modification of attributed traits, since plants seem to compete less aggressively than mammals and in different ways. One committed and fit group of humans can actively wipe out a lot of other humans around them violently, whereas one grove of Oak trees can only defeat other trees by growing taller and shading them from sunlight, and even then a good gust in a storm can tear it all down.

But this is a good catch and very interesting. I will have to get Grimes’ book and check it out to see how it relates to r/K outside of plants. It is probably very similar.

At the end of the day, all of this is very toxic to leftists because the most deep fundamental need they have is to deny truth and reality. Anything which accurately characterizes how the real world works is guaranteed to drive them nuts. I think that is why this site is so free of leftist snark. It is as if the entire site is tented and fogged with an anti-leftist pesticide at all times. That pesticide is called reality.

Very soon, the world will be similarly tented and fogged, with the sweet smell of Apocalypse. I expect we will see that it will have a similar effect on the rabbits who seem to run so rampant today.