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The Unified Neutral Theory Of Biodiversity And Biogeography
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Book Synopsis The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography by : Stephen P. Hubbell
Download or read book The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography written by Stephen P. Hubbell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-27 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context. Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book, Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales. Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers.
Book Synopsis The Species-Area Relationship by : Thomas J. Matthews
Download or read book The Species-Area Relationship written by Thomas J. Matthews and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive synthesis of a fundamental phenomenon, the species-area relationship, addressing theory, evidence and application.
Book Synopsis Ecological Niches by : Jonathan M. Chase
Download or read book Ecological Niches written by Jonathan M. Chase and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-07 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do species live where they live? What determines the abundance and diversity of species in a given area? What role do species play in the functioning of entire ecosystems? All of these questions share a single core concept—the ecological niche. Although the niche concept has fallen into disfavor among ecologists in recent years, Jonathan M. Chase and Mathew A. Leibold argue that the niche is an ideal tool with which to unify disparate research and theoretical approaches in contemporary ecology. Chase and Leibold define the niche as including both what an organism needs from its environment and how that organism's activities shape its environment. Drawing on the theory of consumer-resource interactions, as well as its graphical analysis, they develop a framework for understanding niches that is flexible enough to include a variety of small- and large-scale processes, from resource competition, predation, and stress to community structure, biodiversity, and ecosystem function. Chase and Leibold's synthetic approach will interest ecologists from a wide range of subdisciplines.
Book Synopsis Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49) by : A. Townsend Peterson
Download or read book Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions (MPB-49) written by A. Townsend Peterson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-20 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terminology, conceptual overview, biogeography, modeling.
Book Synopsis The Theory of Ecology by : Samuel M. Scheiner
Download or read book The Theory of Ecology written by Samuel M. Scheiner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite claims to the contrary, the science of ecology has a long history of building theories. Many ecological theories are mathematical, computational, or statistical, though, and rarely have attempts been made to organize or extrapolate these models into broader theories. The Theory of Ecology brings together some of the most respected and creative theoretical ecologists of this era to advance a comprehensive, conceptual articulation of ecological theories. The contributors cover a wide range of topics, from ecological niche theory to population dynamic theory to island biogeography theory. Collectively, the chapters ably demonstrate how theory in ecology accounts for observations about the natural world and how models provide predictive understandings. It organizes these models into constitutive domains that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of ecological understanding. This book is a milestone in ecological theory and is certain to motivate future empirical and theoretical work in one of the most exciting and active domains of the life sciences.
Book Synopsis The Theory of Island Biogeography by : Robert H. MacArthur
Download or read book The Theory of Island Biogeography written by Robert H. MacArthur and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Population theory.
Book Synopsis Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation by : Russell Lande
Download or read book Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation written by Russell Lande and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003 with total page 698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Demographic and environmental stochasticity -- 2. Extinction dynamics -- 3. Age structure -- 4. Spatial structure -- 5. Population viability analysis -- 6. Sustainable harvesting -- 7. Species diversity -- 8. Community dynamics.
Book Synopsis Measuring Biological Diversity by : Anne E. Magurran
Download or read book Measuring Biological Diversity written by Anne E. Magurran and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This accessible and timely book provides a comprehensive overview of how to measure biodiversity. The book highlights new developments, including innovative approaches to measuring taxonomic distinctness and estimating species richness, and evaluates these alongside traditional methods such as species abundance distributions, and diversity and evenness statistics. Helps the reader quantify and interpret patterns of ecological diversity, focusing on the measurement and estimation of species richness and abundance. Explores the concept of ecological diversity, bringing new perspectives to a field beset by contradictory views and advice. Discussion spans issues such as the meaning of community in the context of ecological diversity, scales of diversity and distribution of diversity among taxa Highlights advances in measurement paying particular attention to new techniques such as species richness estimation, application of measures of diversity to conservation and environmental management and addressing sampling issues Includes worked examples of key methods in helping people to understand the techniques and use available computer packages more effectively
Book Synopsis A Theory of Global Biodiversity by : Boris Worm
Download or read book A Theory of Global Biodiversity written by Boris Worm and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The number of species found at a given point on the planet varies by orders of magnitude, yet large-scale gradients in biodiversity appear to follow some very general patterns. Little mechanistic theory has been formulated to explain the emergence of observed gradients of biodiversity both on land and in the oceans. Based on a comprehensive empirical synthesis of global patterns of species diversity and their drivers, A Theory of Global Biodiversity develops and applies a new theory that can predict such patterns from few underlying processes. The authors show that global patterns of biodiversity fall into four consistent categories, according to where species live: on land or in coastal, pelagic, and deep ocean habitats. The fact that most species groups, from bacteria to whales, appear to follow similar biogeographic patterns of richness within these habitats points toward some underlying structuring principles. Based on empirical analyses of environmental correlates across these habitats, the authors combine aspects of neutral, metabolic, and niche theory into one unifying framework. Applying it to model terrestrial and marine realms, the authors demonstrate that a relatively simple theory that incorporates temperature and community size as driving variables is able to explain divergent patterns of species richness at a global scale. Integrating ecological and evolutionary perspectives, A Theory of Global Biodiversity yields surprising insights into the fundamental mechanisms that shape the distribution of life on our planet.
Book Synopsis Bioinformatics for Beginners by : Supratim Choudhuri
Download or read book Bioinformatics for Beginners written by Supratim Choudhuri and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-05-09 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioinformatics for Beginners: Genes, Genomes, Molecular Evolution, Databases and Analytical Tools provides a coherent and friendly treatment of bioinformatics for any student or scientist within biology who has not routinely performed bioinformatic analysis. The book discusses the relevant principles needed to understand the theoretical underpinnings of bioinformatic analysis and demonstrates, with examples, targeted analysis using freely available web-based software and publicly available databases. Eschewing non-essential information, the work focuses on principles and hands-on analysis, also pointing to further study options. - Avoids non-essential coverage, yet fully describes the field for beginners - Explains the molecular basis of evolution to place bioinformatic analysis in biological context - Provides useful links to the vast resource of publicly available bioinformatic databases and analysis tools - Contains over 100 figures that aid in concept discovery and illustration
Book Synopsis Metacommunity Ecology by : Mathew A. Leibold
Download or read book Metacommunity Ecology written by Mathew A. Leibold and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-18 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metacommunity ecology links smaller-scale processes that have been the provenance of population and community ecology—such as birth-death processes, species interactions, selection, and stochasticity—with larger-scale issues such as dispersal and habitat heterogeneity. Until now, the field has focused on evaluating the relative importance of distinct processes, with niche-based environmental sorting on one side and neutral-based ecological drift and dispersal limitation on the other. This book moves beyond these artificial categorizations, showing how environmental sorting, dispersal, ecological drift, and other processes influence metacommunity structure simultaneously. Mathew Leibold and Jonathan Chase argue that the relative importance of these processes depends on the characteristics of the organisms, the strengths and types of their interactions, the degree of habitat heterogeneity, the rates of dispersal, and the scale at which the system is observed. Using this synthetic perspective, they explore metacommunity patterns in time and space, including patterns of coexistence, distribution, and diversity. Leibold and Chase demonstrate how these processes and patterns are altered by micro- and macroevolution, traits and phylogenetic relationships, and food web interactions. They then use this scale-explicit perspective to illustrate how metacommunity processes are essential for understanding macroecological and biogeographical patterns as well as ecosystem-level processes. Moving seamlessly across scales and subdisciplines, Metacommunity Ecology is an invaluable reference, one that offers a more integrated approach to ecological patterns and processes.
Book Synopsis Ecological Assembly Rules by : Evan Weiher
Download or read book Ecological Assembly Rules written by Evan Weiher and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-16 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the evidence for the existence of unifying rules controlling the formation and maintenance of ecological communities.
Book Synopsis Wildlife Science by : Joseph P. Sands
Download or read book Wildlife Science written by Joseph P. Sands and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the potential synergy that can result from basing management applications on results from research, there is a polarization of cultures between wildlife managers and wildlife researchers. Wildlife Science: Connecting Research with Management provides strategies for bridging cultural and communication gaps between these groups. The text covers the history of the longstanding disconnect, research and management entities, species case studies, management and policy case studies, and conclusions and future directions. The authors present case studies of both successful and failed interactions, providing a platform for discussion of the underlying issues. They examine current issues in wildlife science and management to explore real-world implications resulting from the research and management disconnect.
Book Synopsis The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57) by : Mark Vellend
Download or read book The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57) written by Mark Vellend and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A plethora of different theories, models, and concepts make up the field of community ecology. Amid this vast body of work, is it possible to build one general theory of ecological communities? What other scientific areas might serve as a guiding framework? As it turns out, the core focus of community ecology—understanding patterns of diversity and composition of biological variants across space and time—is shared by evolutionary biology and its very coherent conceptual framework, population genetics theory. The Theory of Ecological Communities takes this as a starting point to pull together community ecology's various perspectives into a more unified whole. Mark Vellend builds a theory of ecological communities based on four overarching processes: selection among species, drift, dispersal, and speciation. These are analogues of the four central processes in population genetics theory—selection within species, drift, gene flow, and mutation—and together they subsume almost all of the many dozens of more specific models built to describe the dynamics of communities of interacting species. The result is a theory that allows the effects of many low-level processes, such as competition, facilitation, predation, disturbance, stress, succession, colonization, and local extinction to be understood as the underpinnings of high-level processes with widely applicable consequences for ecological communities. Reframing the numerous existing ideas in community ecology, The Theory of Ecological Communities provides a new way for thinking about biological composition and diversity.
Book Synopsis Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research by : P.W. Rundel
Download or read book Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research written by P.W. Rundel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The analysis of stable isotope ratios represents one of the most exciting new technical advances in environmental sciences. In this book, leading experts offer the first survey of applications of stable isotope analysis to ecological research. Central topics are - plant physiology studies - food webs and animal metabolism - biogeochemical fluxes. Extensive coverage is given to natural isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and strontium in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Ecologists of diverse research interests, as well as agronomists, anthropologists, and geochemists will value this overview for its wealth of information on theoretical background, experimental approaches, and technical design of studies utilizing stable isotope ratios.
Book Synopsis Greening through IT by : Bill Tomlinson
Download or read book Greening through IT written by Bill Tomlinson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-02-10 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the tools of information technology can support environmental sustainability by tackling problems that span broad scales of time, space, and complexity. Environmental issues often span long periods of time, far-flung areas, and labyrinthine layers of complexity. In Greening through IT, Bill Tomlinson investigates how the tools and techniques of information technology (IT) can help us tackle environmental problems at such vast scales. Tomlinson describes theoretical, technological, and social aspects of a growing interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, “Green IT,” offering both a human-centered framework for understanding Green IT systems and specific examples and case studies of Green IT in action. Tomlinson descrobes many efforts toward sustainability supported by IT—from fishers in India who maximized the sales potential of their catch by coordinating their activities with mobile phones to the installation of smart meters that optimize electricity use in California households—and offers three detailed studies of specific research projects that he and his colleagues have undertaken: EcoRaft, an interactive museum exhibit to help children learn principles of restoration ecology; Trackulous, a set of web-based tools with which people can chart their own environmental behavior; and GreenScanner, an online system that provides access to environmental-impact reports about consumer products. Taken together, these examples illustrate the significant environmental benefits that innovations in information technology can enable.
Book Synopsis Applied Palaeontology by : Robert Wynn Jones
Download or read book Applied Palaeontology written by Robert Wynn Jones and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-04 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Palaeontology has developed from a descriptive science to an analytical science used to interpret relationships between earth and life history. This book highlights its key role in the study of the evolving earth, life history and environmental processes. After an introduction to fossils and their classification, each of the principal fossil groups are studied in detail, covering their biology, morphology, classification, palaeobiology and biostratigraphy. The latter sections focus on the applications of fossils in the interpretation of earth and life processes and environments.
