Upending popular ecological wisdom, two biologists working with a computer have found that competition for resources need not winnow out species and that species diversity does not necessarily depend on specialization.

Huisman, J., and F.J. Weissing. 1999. Biodiversity of plankton by species oscillations and chaos. Nature 402(Nov. 25):407.

Sommer, U. 1999. Competition and coexistence. Nature 402(Nov. 25):366.

Wilson, E.O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap.

Further information can be found at the Adirondack Aquatic Institute Phytoplankton Images Library Web site at http://www.paulsmiths.edu/aai/phyto.html.

Jef Huisman
University of Amsterdam
Laboratory for Microbiology
Nieuwe Achtergracht 127
1018 WS Amsterdam
The Netherlands

G. David Tilman
University of Minnesota
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
1987 Upper Buford Circle
St. Paul, MN 55108

Franz J. Weissing
University of Groningen
Department of Genetics
P.O. Box 14
9750 AA Haren
The Netherlands

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 22, November 27, 1999, p. 340. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.