Author : Jack Dekker
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781535401074
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (1 download)
Book Synopsis Evolutionary Ecology of Weeds by : Jack Dekker
Download or read book Evolutionary Ecology of Weeds written by Jack Dekker and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolutionary Ecology of Weeds is the story of WHAT, WHY and HOW some plant species invade and occupy habitats ripe for exploitation. The nature of weeds is the evolution of adaptive traits for seizing and exploiting locally available opportunity. Weeds are the consequence of human disturbance which creates opportunity spacetime, leaving unused resources eager for invasion by weeds. The nature of weeds is the story of us, humans. We created highly successful wild-crop-weed complexes that resist control. We created them by channeling natural selection, the driver of biological change. Plants invade by dispersing, colonizing, reproducing and enduring in a locality. Weeds possess mating systems that generate variable genotypes and phenotypes that struggle for existence, the winners take all. Evolution occurs. Adaptation in weed life history is about timing: timing is everything. Adaptation in local plant communities is interference and facilitation animating strategic roles guided by functional traits. Weed community dynamics is community assembly and ecological succession. Complex adaptive weed system formation reveals larger forces of nature: emergent behavior, physical information remembered. Knowledge of weeds is discovered, then represented in several different ways: ecological demography, life history traits. Representation is confounded by the humans that make them, their beliefs, values and models. Case histories of three weeds explain these concepts: velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), triazine resistant rapeseed (Brassica napus), and the foxtails (Setaria species-group). UNIT 1: THE NATURE OF WEEDS UNIT 2: THE EVOLUTION OF WEED POPULATIONS UNIT 3: ADAPTATION IN WEED LIFE HISTORY UNIT 4: ADAPTATION IN LOCAL PLANT COMMUNITIES UNIT 5: COMPLEX ADAPTIVE WEED SYSTEMS UNIT 6: REPRESENTATION OF WEED BIOLOGY UNIT 7: WEED CASE HISTORY