Wading Through Research

Well! Round 1 is over, and we had some upsets, a couple of blow-outs, and quite a few expected wins. Apparently, primary producers are rather dependable: nothing all that exciting going on in that group. But some things of note elsewhere. Exactly what happened. As few would have denied (except for me. Too much CERP sampling has biased me towards the little man), the alligator trounced the marsh killifish; the panther consumed the woodrat; sawgrass dominated love vine; and the mosquito swarmed the deer fly. The lobate lac scale was absolutely embarrassed by the Mayan cichlid (West Virginia/Kentucky style). BUT we also had some surprise victories: the largemouth bass was fish food for the ibis (some UM fans voting?! And not enough Rehage labbers!), the upside-down jellyfish out-charisma-ed the apple snail, the green iguana mangled the Melaleuca (apparently there's still some bitterness towards Melaleuca out there), and it took a come-from-behind victory for the crocodile to dig...

I hope all your brackets are ready because it's game time for the Round of 64! If you're running a bit behind and need some input on how to fill out your bracket: basically, just choose whichever organism you think has a greater effect on the Everglades in the head-to-head matchups. Once you determine who wins the first two matches, you'll then choose which organism out of those two teams wins in the next round, etc. You can determine winners based on a cost-benefit analysis that isn't necessarily limited by the two organisms' real-life interactions... or you can be more partial and pick your favorite.

With the NCAA basketball tournament and "bracketology" in full swing, I figured we should see how the Everglades would match up in a tournament of champions: MarSh Madness! I admit that this is inspired by the brilliant Mammal March Madness , and it in no way compares to the breadth and depth with which those folks are simulating a mammal combat competition of probabilities! But let's just throw out a bracket of our favorite Everglades inhabitants.