The Fundamental Processes in Ecology

The Fundamental Processes in Ecology PDF Author: David Wilkinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192884646
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This thought-provoking book introduces a way to study ecosystems that is resonant with current thinking in the fields of earth system science, geobiology, and planetology. Instead of organizing the subject around a hierarchical series of entities (e.g. genes, individuals, populations, species, communities, and the biosphere), the book provides an alternative process-based approach and proposes a truly planetary view of ecological science. It demonstrates how the idea of fundamental ecological processes can be developed at the systems level, specifically their involvement in control and feedback mechanisms. This enables the reader to reconsider fundamental ecological processes such as energy flow, guilds, trade-offs, carbon cycling, and photosynthesis, and to put them in a global (and even planetary) context. In so doing, the book places a much stronger emphasis on microorganisms. Since publication of the first edition in 2006, ever growing societal concern about environmental sustainability has ensured that the earth system science/Gaian approach has steadily gained traction. Its integration with ecology is now more important than ever if ecological science is to effectively contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global environmental change. The Fundamental Processes in Ecology is an accessible text for senior undergraduates, graduate student seminar courses, and researchers in the fields of ecology, environmental sustainability, earth system science, evolutionary biology, palaeontology, history of life, astrobiology, planetology, climatology, geology, and physical geography.

The Fundamental Processes in Ecology

The Fundamental Processes in Ecology PDF Author: David Wilkinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192884646
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
This thought-provoking book introduces a way to study ecosystems that is resonant with current thinking in the fields of earth system science, geobiology, and planetology. Instead of organizing the subject around a hierarchical series of entities (e.g. genes, individuals, populations, species, communities, and the biosphere), the book provides an alternative process-based approach and proposes a truly planetary view of ecological science. It demonstrates how the idea of fundamental ecological processes can be developed at the systems level, specifically their involvement in control and feedback mechanisms. This enables the reader to reconsider fundamental ecological processes such as energy flow, guilds, trade-offs, carbon cycling, and photosynthesis, and to put them in a global (and even planetary) context. In so doing, the book places a much stronger emphasis on microorganisms. Since publication of the first edition in 2006, ever growing societal concern about environmental sustainability has ensured that the earth system science/Gaian approach has steadily gained traction. Its integration with ecology is now more important than ever if ecological science is to effectively contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global environmental change. The Fundamental Processes in Ecology is an accessible text for senior undergraduates, graduate student seminar courses, and researchers in the fields of ecology, environmental sustainability, earth system science, evolutionary biology, palaeontology, history of life, astrobiology, planetology, climatology, geology, and physical geography.

Fundamental Processes in Ecology

Fundamental Processes in Ecology PDF Author: David M Wilkinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198568460
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
The book presents a way to study ecosystems that is not yet available in current textbooks but is resonant with current thinking in the emerging fields of geobiology and Earth System Science. It asks and endeavours to answer the question, "what are the really fundamental characteristics of living systems that might allow them to sustain life?" The author goes on to show how the idea of fundamental ecological processes can be developed at the systems level, specifically their involvement in control and feedback mechanisms. This is not a popular science book about Gaian theory, instead it is written as a text and is directed at a predominantly scientific audience.

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology PDF Author: David C. Coleman
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080472818
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
This fully revised and expanded edition of Fundamentals of Soil Ecology continues its holistic approach to soil biology and ecosystem function. Students and ecosystem researchers will gain a greater understanding of the central roles that soils play in ecosystem development and function. The authors emphasize the increasing importance of soils as the organizing center for all terrestrial ecosystems and provide an overview of theory and practice of soil ecology, both from an ecosystem and evolutionary biology point of view. This volume contains updated and greatly expanded coverage of all belowground biota (roots, microbes and fauna) and methods to identify and determine its distribution and abundance. New chapters are provided on soil biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem processes, suggested laboratory and field methods to measure biota and their activities in ecosystems.. - Contains over 60% new material and 150 more pages - Includes new chapters on soil biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem function - Outlines suggested laboratory and field methods - Incorporates new pedagogical features - Combines theoretical and practical approaches

Community Ecology

Community Ecology PDF Author: Herman A. Verhoef
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199228973
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Community ecology is the study of the interactions between populations of co-existing species. Co-edited by two prominent community ecologists and featuring contributions from top researchers in the field, this book provides a survey of the state-of-the-art in both the theory and applications of the discipline. It pays special attention to topology, dynamics, and the importance of spatial and temporal scale while also looking at applications to emerging problems in human-dominated ecosystems (including the restoration and reconstruction of viable communities). Community Ecology: Processes, Models, and Applications adopts a mainly theoretical approach and focuses on the use of network-based theory, which remains little explored in standard community ecology textbooks. The book includes discussion of the effects of biotic invasions on natural communities; the linking of ecological network structure to empirically measured community properties and dynamics; the effects of evolution on community patterns and processes; and the integration of fundamental interactions into ecological networks. A final chapter indicates future research directions for the discipline.

Fundamentals of Ecology

Fundamentals of Ecology PDF Author: Eugene Pleasants Odum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description


Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution

Big Questions in Ecology and Evolution PDF Author: Thomas N. Sherratt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199548609
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to a range of fundamental questions that have taxed evolutionary biologists and ecologists for decades. All of the questions posed have at least a partial solution, all have seen exciting breakthroughs in recent years, yet many of the explanations have been hotly debated.

Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecology

Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecology PDF Author: R. S. K. Barnes
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444314106
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecology is a completely updated and revised edition of the earlier work, Fundamentals of Aquatic Ecosystems. The new edition has been re-titled to reflect the fact that the authors found that, from the modification exercise, a completely different and new book emerged. The new edition concentrates heavily of the fundamental features common to all aquatic systems, both marine and freshwater. This unique synthesis allows for the discussion of ecological processes comparatively, across environments. A general introduction is followed by discussion of various 'types' of aquatic ecosystems - open waters, coastal zones, benthos, and the aquatic ecosystem as a whole. This is followed by an important new chapter on aquatic ecosystems and global ecology. Later chapters consider the individuals and communities in aquatic ecosystems. A totally re-written and rejuvenated edition of an established student text. Synthesizes both marine and freshwater ecology. Covers both ecosystem ecology and population biology. In depth consideration of man's impact on the aquatic environment.

Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments

Paleozoology and Paleoenvironments PDF Author: J. Tyler Faith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108480357
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Outlines the ecological fundamentals, assumptions, and techniques for reconstructing past environments using fossil animals from archaeological and paleontological sites.

Fundamentals of Ecology

Fundamentals of Ecology PDF Author: Agarwal S. K.
Publisher: APH Publishing
ISBN: 9788131303429
Category : Ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
The Fundamentals of ecology has all the characteristics of scientific explanation. It provides advanced students an insight into the rich and varied investigations on the modern concepts with particular reference to the Indian sub-continent. It is hoped that this attempt will shed some light on the expanding horizons, serious controversy and major concepts by opposing schools of thought and stimulate others to clarify the subject further.

The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57)

The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57) PDF Author: Mark Vellend
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691208999
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
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.