A Theory Of Global Biodiversity Mpb 60

Author : Boris Worm,Derek P. Tittensor
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2018-06-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691154831

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A Theory of Global Biodiversity (MPB-60) by Boris Worm,Derek P. Tittensor Pdf

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.

Author : Stephen P. Hubbell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2011-06-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400837526

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The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography (MPB-32) by Stephen P. Hubbell Pdf

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.

Author : Osvaldo E. Sala,Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2001-08-24
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0387952497

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Global Biodiversity in a Changing Environment by Osvaldo E. Sala,Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald Pdf

Climatic change, conservation biology

Author : Mark Vellend
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691208992

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The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57) by Mark Vellend Pdf

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.

Author : Brian Groombridge,Martin Jenkins,World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Publisher : United Nations Environment Programme
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Biodiversity
ISBN : UCSD:31822029703352

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Global Biodiversity by Brian Groombridge,Martin Jenkins,World Conservation Monitoring Centre Pdf

This publication gives a broad ecological overview of current condition in the three main parts of the biosphere, the seas, the land and inland waters. It also provides an historical context, from the origin of life on the planet onward. This has been done to demonstrate the long history of life on earth and to emphasise the brevity of human existence. The first part of the book includes a discussion of the components of biodiversity and an account of the expansion of this diversity through geological time and the pattern of distribution on the planet. The second part covers features of human impacts on the environment and the uses currently made of biodiversity. The main lesson drawn is that while life itself has remarkable tenacity, the tenure on earth of individual species has always been a strictly limited one. The environment of any species has two main roles: to provide the essential materials for growth and reproduction of the species and to remove or transform its waste products. A failure of either of these two will have an adverse or catastrophic impact on the species concerned. Ecosystems and the biosphere continue to function because the relentless pressure of natural selection has meant that organisms have evolved that thrive on the waste products of other organisms. This is considered in the book to be the function of biological diversity. A large number of tables and maps are presented in this publication, including a table on biodiversity at country level. This book has a companion volume, 'Life Counts'.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : World Conservation Union
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1988-12-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 2831700795

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Global Biodiversity 1992 by Anonim Pdf

Author : Jonathan Adams
Publisher : Springer
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2010-10-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 3642093639

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Species Richness by Jonathan Adams Pdf

This is a readable, informative and up-to-date account of the patterns and controls on biodiversity. The author describes major trends in species richness, along with uncertainties in current knowledge. The various possible explanations for past and present species patterns are discussed and explained in an even-handed and accessible way. The implications of global climate change and habitat loss are considered, along with current strategies for preserving what we have. This book examines the state of current understanding of species richness patterns and their explanations. As well as the present day world, it deals with diversification and extinction, in the conservation of species richness, and the difficulties of assessing how many species remain to be discovered. The scientifically compelling subject of vegetation-climate interaction is considered in depth. Written in an accessible style, the author offers an up-to-date, rigorous and yet eminently comprehensible overview of the ecology and biogeography of species richness. He departs from the often heavy approach of earlier texts, without sacrificing rigor and depth of information and analysis. Prefacing with the aims of the book, Chapter 1 opens with an explanation of latitudinal gradients, including a description of major features of the striking gradients in species richness, exceptions to the rule, explanations, major theories and field and experimental tests. The following chapter plumbs the depth of time, including the nature of the fossil record, broad timescale diversity patterns, ecosystem changes during mass extinctions and glaciations and their influence on species richness. Chapters 3 and 4 consider hotspots and local scale patterns in species richness while Chapter 5 looks at the limitations and uncertainties on current estimates of richness, the last frontiers of species diversity and the process of identifying new life forms. The last three chapters cover humans and extinctions in history and prehistory, current habitat and global change, including the greenhouse effect, and the race to preserve what we still have, including parks, gene banks and laws.

Author : Eric Post
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2019-02-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691185491

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Time in Ecology by Eric Post Pdf

Ecologists traditionally regard time as part of the background against which ecological interactions play out. In this book, Eric Post argues that time should be treated as a resource used by organisms for growth, maintenance, and offspring production. Post uses insights from phenology—the study of the timing of life-cycle events—to present a theoretical framework of time in ecology that casts long-standing observations in the field in an entirely new light. Combining conceptual models with field data, he demonstrates how phenological advances, delays, and stasis, documented in an array of taxa, can all be viewed as adaptive components of an organism’s strategic use of time. Post shows how the allocation of time by individual organisms to critical life history stages is not only a response to environmental cues but also an important driver of interactions at the population, species, and community levels. To demonstrate the applications of this exciting new conceptual framework, Time in Ecology uses meta-analyses of previous studies as well as Post’s original data on the phenological dynamics of plants, caribou, and muskoxen in Greenland.

Author : Chadwick Dearing Oliver,Fatma Arf Oliver
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 547 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781107172937

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Global Resources and the Environment by Chadwick Dearing Oliver,Fatma Arf Oliver Pdf

An illustrated overview of the sustainability of natural resources and the social and environmental issues surrounding their distribution and demand.

Author : Brian D. Fath
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 2786 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-08-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780444641304

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Encyclopedia of Ecology by Brian D. Fath Pdf

Encyclopedia of Ecology, Second Edition, Four Volume Set continues the acclaimed work of the previous edition published in 2008. It covers all scales of biological organization, from organisms, to populations, to communities and ecosystems. Laboratory, field, simulation modelling, and theoretical approaches are presented to show how living systems sustain structure and function in space and time. New areas of focus include micro- and macro scales, molecular and genetic ecology, and global ecology (e.g., climate change, earth transformations, ecosystem services, and the food-water-energy nexus) are included. In addition, new, international experts in ecology contribute on a variety of topics. Offers the most broad-ranging and comprehensive resource available in the field of ecology Provides foundational content and suggests further reading Incorporates the expertise of over 500 outstanding investigators in the field of ecology, including top young scientists with both research and teaching experience Includes multimedia resources, such as an Interactive Map Viewer and links to a CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System), an open-source platform for modelers to share and link models dealing with earth system processes

Author : David Pearce,Dominic Moran
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 203 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781134165292

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The Economic Value of Biodiversity by David Pearce,Dominic Moran Pdf

Biodiversity loss is one of the major resource problems facing the world, and the policy options available are restricted by inappropriate economic tools which fail to capture the value of species and their variety. This study describes in non-technical terms how cost-benefit analysis techniques can be applied to species and species loss, and how they provide a measure of the efficiency of conservation measures. Only when conservation can be shown to pass such a basic economic test, the authors claim, will it be incorporated into policies.;David Pearce has also written Blueprint for a Green Economy.

Author : Michel Loreau
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2010-07-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781400834167

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From Populations to Ecosystems by Michel Loreau Pdf

The major subdisciplines of ecology--population ecology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and evolutionary ecology--have diverged increasingly in recent decades. What is critically needed today is an integrated, real-world approach to ecology that reflects the interdependency of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. From Populations to Ecosystems proposes an innovative theoretical synthesis that will enable us to advance our fundamental understanding of ecological systems and help us to respond to today's emerging global ecological crisis. Michel Loreau begins by explaining how the principles of population dynamics and ecosystem functioning can be merged. He then addresses key issues in the study of biodiversity and ecosystems, such as functional complementarity, food webs, stability and complexity, material cycling, and metacommunities. Loreau describes the most recent theoretical advances that link the properties of individual populations to the aggregate properties of communities, and the properties of functional groups or trophic levels to the functioning of whole ecosystems, placing special emphasis on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Finally, he turns his attention to the controversial issue of the evolution of entire ecosystems and their properties, laying the theoretical foundations for a genuine evolutionary ecosystem ecology. From Populations to Ecosystems points the way to a much-needed synthesis in ecology, one that offers a fuller understanding of ecosystem processes in the natural world.

Author : Elena Casetta,Jorge Marques da Silva,Davide Vecchi
Publisher : Springer
Page : 455 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2019-06-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030109912

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From Assessing to Conserving Biodiversity by Elena Casetta,Jorge Marques da Silva,Davide Vecchi Pdf

This open access book features essays written by philosophers, biologists, ecologists and conservation scientists facing the current biodiversity crisis. Despite increasing communication, accelerating policy and management responses, and notwithstanding improving ecosystem assessment and endangered species knowledge, conserving biodiversity continues to be more a concern than an accomplished task. Why is it so?The overexploitation of natural resources by our species is a frequently recognised factor, while the short-term economic interests of governments and stakeholders typically clash with the burdens that implementing conservation actions imply. But this is not the whole story. This book develops a different perspective on the problem by exploring the conceptual challenges and practical defiance posed by conserving biodiversity, namely: on the one hand, the difficulties in defining what biodiversity is and characterizing that “thing” to which the word ‘biodiversity’ refers to; on the other hand, the reasons why assessing biodiversity and putting in place effective conservation actions is arduous.

Author : Ameer Abdulla,Olof Linden
Publisher : IUCN
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9782831710792

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Maritime Traffic Effects on Biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea by Ameer Abdulla,Olof Linden Pdf

Author : Aaron M. Ellison,Frank S. Gilliam
Publisher : MDPI
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-07-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783039213092

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Causes and Consequences of Species Diversity in Forest Ecosystems by Aaron M. Ellison,Frank S. Gilliam Pdf

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Causes and Consequences of Species Diversity in Forest Ecosystems that was published in Forests