Biological Units Coordinate Activities through Communication

19 BIOLOGICAL UNITS COORDINATE ACTIVITIES THROUGH COMMUNICATION 

There are many ways for organisms to probe the external world. Some smell it, others listen to it, many see it. Each species therefore lives in its own unique sensory world of which other species may be partially or totally unaware. 

BU do not exist as isolated units, but instead share their enviromnent with others, both similar and dissimilar. Sometimes relations with other BU are friendly and cooperative, and sometimes they 

Communication is important as a means of coordination, and, as such, is used by microbes, plants, animals, and tissues and organs. Organismal BU use communication to meet basic needs food, security, and reproduction are among these. They use a sophisticated set of stimuli and responses for these purposes. The more social the BU, the more elaborate are the communications. 

Von Uexlcull suggested in 1934 that each species inhabits a sensory world uniquely evolved to meet its needs (Dyer and Gould, 1983). Thus honey bees see colors, but these colors include ultraviolet and lack red. Also, bats hear sounds, but they hear very high frequencies that humans cannot. Sharks and other fishes are sensitive to electric fields, and some birds can tell direction from lines of force in the Earth s magnetic field (Gould, 1980). Sensory reality to each of these animals is much different from what we humans would perceive. 

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