Dynamic Ecologies

Author : Mark Vellend
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 50,5 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 : Marc Mangel,Colin Whitcomb Clark
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2019-12-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691206967

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Dynamic Modeling in Behavioral Ecology by Marc Mangel,Colin Whitcomb Clark Pdf

This book describes a powerful and flexible technique for the modeling of behavior, based on evolutionary principles. The technique employs stochastic dynamic programming and permits the analysis of behavioral adaptations wherein organisms respond to changes in their environment and in their own current physiological state. Models can be constructed to reflect sequential decisions concerned simultaneously with foraging, reproduction, predator avoidance, and other activities. The authors show how to construct and use dynamic behavioral models. Part I covers the mathematical background and computer programming, and then uses a paradigm of foraging under risk of predation to exemplify the general modeling technique. Part II consists of five "applied" chapters illustrating the scope of the dynamic modeling approach. They treat hunting behavior in lions, reproduction in insects, migrations of aquatic organisms, clutch size and parental care in birds, and movement of spiders and raptors. Advanced topics, including the study of dynamic evolutionarily stable strategies, are discussed in Part III.

Author : Steward T.A. Pickett,P. S. White
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-10-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780080504957

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The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics by Steward T.A. Pickett,P. S. White Pdf

Ecologists are aware of the importance of natural dynamics in ecosystems. Historically, the focus has been on the development in succession of equilibrium communities, which has generated an understanding of the composition and functioning of ecosystems. Recently, many have focused on the processes of disturbances and the evolutionary significance of such events. This shifted emphasis has inspired studies in diverse systems. The phrase "patch dynamics" (Thompson, 1978) describes their common focus. The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics brings together the findings and ideas of those studying varied systems, presenting a synthesis of diverse individual contributions.

Author : Nigel Dunnett,James Hitchmough
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 491 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Ecological landscape design
ISBN : 9780415438100

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The Dynamic Landscape by Nigel Dunnett,James Hitchmough Pdf

The Dynamic Landscape advances a fusion of scientific and ecological planning design philosophy that can address the need for more sustainable designed landscapes. It is a major statement on the design, implementation and management of ecologically inspired landscape vegetation.

Author : Herman A. Verhoef,Peter J. Morin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780199228973

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Community Ecology by Herman A. Verhoef,Peter J. Morin Pdf

This is an up-to-date study of patterns and processes involving two or more species. The book strikes a balance between plant and animal species and among studies of marine, freshwater and terrestrial communities.

Author : Gary G. Mittelbach,Brian J. McGill
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2019-05-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780192572868

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Community Ecology by Gary G. Mittelbach,Brian J. McGill Pdf

Community ecology has undergone a transformation in recent years, from a discipline largely focused on processes occurring within a local area to a discipline encompassing a much richer domain of study, including the linkages between communities separated in space (metacommunity dynamics), niche and neutral theory, the interplay between ecology and evolution (eco-evolutionary dynamics), and the influence of historical and regional processes in shaping patterns of biodiversity. To fully understand these new developments, however, students continue to need a strong foundation in the study of species interactions and how these interactions are assembled into food webs and other ecological networks. This new edition fulfils the book's original aims, both as a much-needed up-to-date and accessible introduction to modern community ecology, and in identifying the important questions that are yet to be answered. This research-driven textbook introduces state-of-the-art community ecology to a new generation of students, adopting reasoned and balanced perspectives on as-yet-unresolved issues. Community Ecology is suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers seeking a broad, up-to-date coverage of ecological concepts at the community level.

Author : Charles G. Curtin,Timothy F. H. Allen
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 595 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2018-05-31
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781108416078

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Complex Ecology by Charles G. Curtin,Timothy F. H. Allen Pdf

Research papers from the end of twentieth-century have been assembled, alongside expert commentary, for the first collected volume on complexity-based ecology.

Author : Samuel M. Scheiner,Michael R. Willig
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2011-07-15
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226736860

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The Theory of Ecology by Samuel M. Scheiner,Michael R. Willig Pdf

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.

Author : R. Hengeveld
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1992-08-13
Category : Nature
ISBN : 0521437563

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Dynamic Biogeography by R. Hengeveld Pdf

Biogeography is the study of biological patterns and processes on a broad scale--geographically and temporally. The spatial patterns and processes studied are presented from an ecological perspective in this text.

Author : Michael Strevens
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2020-10-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781631491382

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The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens Pdf

“The Knowledge Machine is the most stunningly illuminating book of the last several decades regarding the all-important scientific enterprise.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex A paradigm-shifting work, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. • Why is science so powerful? • Why did it take so long—two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics—for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe? In a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument. Like such classic works as Karl Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine grapples with the meaning and origins of science, using a plethora of vivid historical examples to demonstrate that scientists willfully ignore religion, theoretical beauty, and even philosophy to embrace a constricted code of argument whose very narrowness channels unprecedented energy into empirical observation and experimentation. Strevens calls this scientific code the iron rule of explanation, and reveals the way in which the rule, precisely because it is unreasonably close-minded, overcomes individual prejudices to lead humanity inexorably toward the secrets of nature. “With a mixture of philosophical and historical argument, and written in an engrossing style” (Alan Ryan), The Knowledge Machine provides captivating portraits of some of the greatest luminaries in science’s history, including Isaac Newton, the chief architect of modern science and its foundational theories of motion and gravitation; William Whewell, perhaps the greatest philosopher-scientist of the early nineteenth century; and Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark. Today, Strevens argues, in the face of threats from a changing climate and global pandemics, the idiosyncratic but highly effective scientific knowledge machine must be protected from politicians, commercial interests, and even scientists themselves who seek to open it up, to make it less narrow and more rational—and thus to undermine its devotedly empirical search for truth. Rich with illuminating and often delightfully quirky illustrations, The Knowledge Machine, written in a winningly accessible style that belies the import of its revisionist and groundbreaking concepts, radically reframes much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world.

Author : Boyd D. Collier
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Page : 563 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1973
Category : Ecology
ISBN : 0132213095

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Dynamic Ecology by Boyd D. Collier Pdf

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Page : 584 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1973
Category : Ecology
ISBN : UCAL:B4455869

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Dynamic Ecology by Anonim Pdf

Examines the basic concept of the structure and function of ecological systems.

Author : Kenneth Andrew Kershaw
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 1964
Category : Plant Ecology
ISBN : UOM:39015001905846

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Quantitative and Dynamic Ecology by Kenneth Andrew Kershaw Pdf

Author : Peter J. Bowler
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2013-03-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780226068671

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Darwin Deleted by Peter J. Bowler Pdf

A history of science text imagining how evolutionary theory and biology would have been understood if Darwin had never published his "Origin of Species" and other works.--publisher summary.

Author : J. M. Cushing
Publisher : Elsevier
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0121988767

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Chaos in Ecology by J. M. Cushing Pdf

Chaos in Ecology is a convincing demonstration of chaos in a biological population. The book synthesizes an ecologically focused interdisciplinary blend of non-linear dynamics theory, statistics, and experimentation yielding results of uncommon clarity and rigor. Topics include fundamental issues that are of general and widespread importance to population biology and ecology. Detailed descriptions are included of the mathematical, statistical, and experimental steps they used to explore nonlinear dynamics in ecology. Beginning with a brief overview of chaos theory and its implications for ecology. The book continues by deriving and rigorously testing a mathematical model that is closely wedded to biological mechanisms of their research organism. Therefrom were generated a variety of predictions that are fundamental to chaos theory and experiments were designed and analyzed to test those predictions. Discussion of patterns in chaos and how they can be investigated using real data follows and book ends with a discussion of the salient lessons learned from this research program Book jacket.