Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 9780080490298
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208
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Book Description
The most recent volume of this series, Advances in Ecological Research, demonstrates a captivating knowledge of recent advances in the analysis of food webs. A food web describes the network of predator-prey interactions within a community. The simplest description of a food web specifies only who eats whom (a connectance web), with no indication of how much or how often. Chapters in this book begin with a discussion of the most detailed connectance webs ever compiled, and advance to incorporate information on the body size and numerical abundance of the species. The results yield new ways of describing food webs and powerful new models for estimating patterns of energy flow in ecosystems. Provides fresh ways of describing food webs and applies previous observations in a new context Ranked as the #1 publication in the Institute for Scientific Information in the Ecology section of 2000 Powerful new theory AND application to some of the best food web data in the world Many mathematical models for food web structure and function Integrates previously unconnected perspectives on the description of ecological communities
Author: John C. Moore
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191646423
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
This novel book bridges the gap between the energetic and species approaches to studying food webs, addressing many important topics in ecology. Species, matter, and energy are common features of all ecological systems. Through the lens of complex adaptive systems thinking, the authors explore how the inextricable relationship between species, matter, and energy can explain how systems are structured and how they persist in real and model systems. Food webs are viewed as open and dynamic systems. The central theme of the book is that the basis of ecosystem persistence and stability rests on the interplay between the rates of input of energy into the system from living and dead sources, and the patterns in utilization of energy that result from the trophic interactions among species within the system. To develop this theme, the authors integrate the latest work on community dynamics, ecosystem energetics, and stability. In so doing, they present a unified ecology that dispels the categorization of the field into the separate subdisciplines of population, community, and ecosystem ecology. Energetic Food Webs is suitable for both graduate level students and professional researchers in the general field of ecology. It will be of particular relevance and use to those working in the specific areas of food webs, species dynamics, material and energy cycling, as well as community and ecosystem ecology.
Author: Kevin S. McCann
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691134189
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255
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Book Description
This book synthesizes and reconciles modern and classical perspectives into a general unified theory.
Author: Alan G. Hildrew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139464175
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 335
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Book Description
Ecologists have long struggled to predict features of ecological systems, such as the numbers and diversity of organisms. The wide range of body sizes in ecological communities, from tiny microbes to large animals and plants, is emerging as the key to prediction. Based on the relationship between body size and features such as biological rates, the physics of water and the amount of habitat available, we may be able to understand patterns of abundance and diversity, biogeography, interactions in food webs and the impact of fishing, adding up to a potential 'periodic table' for ecology. Remarkable progress on the unravelling, describing and modelling of aquatic food webs, revealing the fundamental role of body size, makes a book emphasising marine and freshwater ecosystems particularly apt. In this 2007 book, the importance of body size is examined at a range of scales that will be of interest to professional ecologists, from students to senior researchers.
Author: John A Matthews
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446264882
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1490
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Book Description
Accessibly written by a team of international authors, the Encyclopedia of Environmental Change provides a gateway to the complex facts, concepts, techniques, methodology and philosophy of environmental change. This three-volume set illustrates and examines topics within this dynamic and rapidly changing interdisciplinary field. The encyclopedia includes all of the following aspects of environmental change: Diverse evidence of environmental change, including climate change and changes on land and in the oceans Underlying natural and anthropogenic causes and mechanisms Wide-ranging local, regional and global impacts from the polar regions to the tropics Responses of geo-ecosystems and human-environmental systems in the face of past, present and future environmental change Approaches, methodologies and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling, projecting and predicting change Social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues, environmental conservation and management and environmental policy Over 4,000 entries explore the following key themes and more: Conservation Demographic change Environmental management Environmental policy Environmental security Food security Glaciation Green Revolution Human impact on environment Industrialization Landuse change Military impacts on environment Mining and mining impacts Nuclear energy Pollution Renewable resources Solar energy Sustainability Tourism Trade Water resources Water security Wildlife conservation The comprehensive coverage of terminology includes layers of entries ranging from one-line definitions to short essays, making this an invaluable companion for any student of physical geography, environmental geography or environmental sciences.
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0123847206
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 5485
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Book Description
The 7-volume Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Second Edition maintains the reputation of the highly regarded original, presenting the most current information available in this globally crucial area of research and study. It brings together the dimensions of biodiversity and examines both the services it provides and the measures to protect it. Major themes of the work include the evolution of biodiversity, systems for classifying and defining biodiversity, ecological patterns and theories of biodiversity, and an assessment of contemporary patterns and trends in biodiversity. The science of biodiversity has become the science of our future. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning areas of both physical and life sciences. Our awareness of the loss of biodiversity has brought a long overdue appreciation of the magnitude of this loss and a determination to develop the tools to protect our future. Second edition includes over 100 new articles and 226 updated articles covering this multidisciplinary field— from evolution to habits to economics, in 7 volumes The editors of this edition are all well respected, instantly recognizable academics operating at the top of their respective fields in biodiversity research; readers can be assured that they are reading material that has been meticulously checked and reviewed by experts Approximately 1,800 figures and 350 tables complement the text, and more than 3,000 glossary entries explain key terms
Author: Richard M. Sibly
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119968518
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394
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Book Description
Metabolic Ecology Most of ecology is about metabolism, the ways that organisms use energy and materials. The energy requirements of individuals (their metabolic rates) vary predictably with their body size and temperature. Ecological interactions are exchanges of energy and materials between organisms and their environments. Therefore, metabolic rate affects ecological processes at all levels: individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems. Each chapter focuses on a different process, level of organization, or kind of organism. It lays a conceptual foundation and presents empirical examples. Together, the chapters provide an integrated framework that holds the promise for a unified theory of ecology. The book is intended to be accessible to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, but also of interest to senior scientists. Its easy-to-read chapters and clear illustrations can be used in lecture and seminar courses. This is an authoritative treatment that will inspire future generations to study metabolic ecology.
Author: Jack Teng
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Food chains (Ecology)
Languages : en
Pages : 156
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Book Description
"This thesis studies how structure and energetics influence complex food web dynamics. In Chapter 1, I approach the question by studying a simple food web model that can be modified to include different structural and energetic features. In Chapter 2, I study stability and food web properties in assembled webs that are structured by body-size restrictions and a generalist-specialist tradeoff. The results of both chapters suggest that structure and energetics must be considered to understand food web dynamics. In Chapter 1, I find that food web structure can be modified by weak and strong energetic flows and stabilize dynamics through asynchrony. In Chapter 2, I find that food web assembly with different assemblages of generalists or specialists leads to structures that have corresponding differences in the stability and properties of food webs. Hence, my thesis reexamines the relationship of complexity and dynamics from a topological and energetic framework." --
Author: Roger Arditi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199913846
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185
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Book Description
Understanding the functioning of ecosystems requires the understanding of the interactions between consumer species and their resources. How do these interactions affect the variations of population abundances? How do population abundances determine the impact of predators on their prey? The view defended in this book is that the "null model" that most ecologists tend to use is inappropriate because it assumes that the amount of prey consumed by each predator is insensitive to the number of conspecifics. The authors argue that the amount of prey available per predator, rather than the absolute abundance of prey, is the basic determinant of the dynamics of predation. This so-called ratio dependence is shown to be a much more reasonable "null model."
Author: Chiara Piroddi
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889743152
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 503
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Book Description
