Consumer-Resource Dynamics (MPB-36)

Consumer-Resource Dynamics (MPB-36) PDF Author: William W. Murdoch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400847257
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Despite often violent fluctuations in nature, species extinction is rare. California red scale, a potentially devastating pest of citrus, has been suppressed for fifty years in California to extremely low yet stable densities by its controlling parasitoid. Some larch budmoth populations undergo extreme cycles; others never cycle. In Consumer-Resource Dynamics, William Murdoch, Cherie Briggs, and Roger Nisbet use these and numerous other biological examples to lay the groundwork for a unifying theory applicable to predator-prey, parasitoid-host, and other consumer-resource interactions. Throughout, the focus is on how the properties of real organisms affect population dynamics. The core of the book synthesizes and extends the authors' own models involving insect parasitoids and their hosts, and explores in depth how consumer species compete for a dynamic resource. The emerging general consumer-resource theory accounts for how consumers respond to differences among individuals in the resource population. From here the authors move to other models of consumer-resource dynamics and population dynamics in general. Consideration of empirical examples, key concepts, and a necessary review of simple models is followed by examination of spatial processes affecting dynamics, and of implications for biological control of pest organisms. The book establishes the coherence and broad applicability of consumer-resource theory and connects it to single-species dynamics. It closes by stressing the theory's value as a hierarchy of models that allows both generality and testability in the field.

Consumer-Resource Dynamics (MPB-36)

Consumer-Resource Dynamics (MPB-36) PDF Author: William W. Murdoch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400847257
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Despite often violent fluctuations in nature, species extinction is rare. California red scale, a potentially devastating pest of citrus, has been suppressed for fifty years in California to extremely low yet stable densities by its controlling parasitoid. Some larch budmoth populations undergo extreme cycles; others never cycle. In Consumer-Resource Dynamics, William Murdoch, Cherie Briggs, and Roger Nisbet use these and numerous other biological examples to lay the groundwork for a unifying theory applicable to predator-prey, parasitoid-host, and other consumer-resource interactions. Throughout, the focus is on how the properties of real organisms affect population dynamics. The core of the book synthesizes and extends the authors' own models involving insect parasitoids and their hosts, and explores in depth how consumer species compete for a dynamic resource. The emerging general consumer-resource theory accounts for how consumers respond to differences among individuals in the resource population. From here the authors move to other models of consumer-resource dynamics and population dynamics in general. Consideration of empirical examples, key concepts, and a necessary review of simple models is followed by examination of spatial processes affecting dynamics, and of implications for biological control of pest organisms. The book establishes the coherence and broad applicability of consumer-resource theory and connects it to single-species dynamics. It closes by stressing the theory's value as a hierarchy of models that allows both generality and testability in the field.

Consumer-resource Interactions, Population Synchrony, and Cycles

Consumer-resource Interactions, Population Synchrony, and Cycles PDF Author: Karen C. Abbott
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Herbivores
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


Food Webs

Food Webs PDF Author: John C. Moore
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107182115
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This book presents new approaches to studying food webs, using practical and policy examples to demonstrate the theory behind ecosystem management decisions.

The Consumer-Resource Relationship

The Consumer-Resource Relationship PDF Author: Claude Lobry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119544017
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Better known as the "predator-prey relationship," the consumer-resource relationship means the situation where a single species of organisms consumes for survival and reproduction. For example, Escherichia coli consumes glucose, cows consume grass, cheetahs consume baboons; these three very different situations, the first concerns the world of bacteria and the resource is a chemical species, the second concerns mammals and the resource is a plant, and in the final case the consumer and the resource are mammals, have in common the fact of consuming. In a chemostat, microorganisms generally consume (abiotic) minerals, but not always, bacteriophages consume bacteria that constitute a biotic resource. 'The Chemostat' book dealt only with the case of abiotic resources. Mathematically this amounts to replacing in the two equation system of the chemostat the decreasing function by a general increasing then decreasing function. This simple change has greatly enriched the theory. This book shows in this new framework the problem of competition for the same resource.

Resource Ecology

Resource Ecology PDF Author: Herbert H.T. Prins
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402068492
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This multi-author book deals with ‘resource ecology’, which is the ecology of trophic interactions between consumers and their resources. All the chapters were subjected to intense group discussions; comments and critiques were subsequently used for writing new versions, which were peer-reviewed. Each chapter is followed by a comment. This makes the book ideal for teaching and course work, because it highlights the fact that ecology is a living and active research field.

Consumer-resource Dynamics in an Eco-evolutionary Process in a Natural Plankton Community

Consumer-resource Dynamics in an Eco-evolutionary Process in a Natural Plankton Community PDF Author: Lindsay Renee Schaffner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
While many laboratory and mesocosm studies have shown rapid evolution can occur on an ecologically relevant timescale leading to eco-evolutionary dynamics, these interactions are rarely documented in nature. This study is one of the first to demonstrate these processes in a natural lake. We used an important planktonic consumer, Daphnia mendotae, and the quality of its resource, phytoplankton, to demonstrate this eco-evolutionary process. We observed seasonal changes in phytoplankton species composition (an ecological process) drive changes in the frequency of consumer genotypes (evolution), which in turn has the potential to affect the consumer population's somatic growth rate (ecology). Genotypes predominant in spring, when edible phytoplankton dominated, grew well in the lab when fed spring algal taxa, but poorly on a diet containing relatively inedible cyanobacteria typical of summer. Conversely, genotypes that dominated in late summer, or showed no seasonal frequency pattern, were relatively resistant to dietary cyanobacteria.

Predator Ecology

Predator Ecology PDF Author: John P. DeLong
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192895508
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Predator-prey interactions are ubiquitous, govern the flow of energy up trophic levels, and strongly influence the structure of ecological systems. They are typically quantified using the functional response - the relationship between a predator's foraging rate and the availability of food. As such, the functional response is central to how all ecological communities function - since all communities contain foragers - and a principal driver of the abundance, diversity, and dynamics of ecological communities. The functional response also reflects all the behaviors, traits, and strategies that predators use to hunt prey and that prey use to evade predation. It is thus both a clear reflection of past evolution, including predator-prey arms races, and a major force driving the future evolution of both predator and prey. Despite their importance, there have been remarkably few attempts to synthesize or even briefly review functional responses. This novel and accessible book fills this gap, clearly demonstrating their crucial role as the link between individuals, evolution, and community properties, representing a highly-integrated and measurable aspect of ecological function. It provides a clear entry point for students, a refresher for more advanced researchers, and a motivator for future research. Predator Ecology is an advanced textbook suitable for graduate students and researchers in ecology and evolutionary biology seeking a broad, up-to-date, and authoritative coverage of the field. It will also be of relevance and use to mathematical ecologists, wildlife biologists, and anyone interested in predator-prey interactions.

Ecological Dynamics

Ecological Dynamics PDF Author: W. S. C. Gurney
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780195104431
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Ecological Dynamics is unique in that it can serve both as an introductory text in numerous ecology courses and as a resource for more advanced work. It provides a flexible introduction to ecological dynamics that is accessible to students with limited previous mathematical and computational experience, yet also offers glimpses into the state of the art in the field. The book is divided into three parts: Part I, Methodologies and Techniques, defines the authors' modeling philosophy, focusing on models rather than ecology, and introduces essential concepts for describing and analyzing dynamical systems. Part II, Individuals to Ecosystems, the core of the book, describes the formulation and analysis of models of individual organisms, populations, and ecosystems. Part III, Focus on Structure, introduces more advanced readers to models of 'structured' and spatially extended populations. Approximately 25% of the book is devoted to case studies drawn from the authors' research. Readers are guided through the many judgment calls involved in model formulation, shown the key steps in model analysis, and offered the authors' interpretation of the results. All chapters end with exercises and projects. While the book is designed to be independent of any particular computing environment, a well-tested software package (SOLVER), including programs for solution of differential and difference equations, is available via the World Wide Web at http: //www.stams.strath.ac.uk/external/solver. Ideal for courses in modeling ecological and environmental change, Ecological Dynamics can also be used in other courses such as theoretical ecology, population ecology, mathematical biology and ecology, and quantitative ecology.

Food Webs

Food Webs PDF Author: Gary A. Polis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461570077
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 475

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Book Description
Reflecting the recent surge of activity in food web research fueled by new empirical data, this authoritative volume successfully spans and integrates the areas of theory, basic empirical research, applications, and resource problems. Written by recognized leaders from various branches of ecological research, this work provides an in-depth treatment of the most recent advances in the field and examines the complexity and variability of food webs through reviews, new research, and syntheses of the major issues in food web research. Food Webs features material on the role of nutrients, detritus and microbes in food webs, indirect effects in food webs, the interaction of productivity and consumption, linking cause and effect in food webs, temporal and spatial scales of food web dynamics, applications of food webs to pest management, fisheries, and ecosystem stress. Three comprehensive chapters synthesize important information on the role of indirect effects, productivity and consumer regulation, and temporal, spatial and life history influences on food webs. In addition, numerous tables, figures, and mathematical equations found nowhere else in related literature are presented in this outstanding work. Food Webs offers researchers and graduate students in various branches of ecology an extensive examination of the subject. Ecologists interested in food webs or community ecology will also find this book an invaluable tool for understanding the current state of knowledge of food web research.

Community Ecology

Community Ecology PDF Author: Gary G. Mittelbach
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192572865
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
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.