Analytical Population Dynamics

Analytical Population Dynamics PDF Author: T. Royama
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401129169
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A knowledge of animal population dynamics is essential for the proper management of natural resources and the environment. This book, now available in paperback, develops basic concepts and a rigorous methodology for the analysis of animal population dynamics to identify the underlying mechanisms.

Analytical Population Dynamics

Analytical Population Dynamics PDF Author: T. Royama
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401129169
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
A knowledge of animal population dynamics is essential for the proper management of natural resources and the environment. This book, now available in paperback, develops basic concepts and a rigorous methodology for the analysis of animal population dynamics to identify the underlying mechanisms.

Concepts of Biology

Concepts of Biology PDF Author: Samantha Fowler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789888407453
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 618

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Book Description
Concepts of Biology is designed for the single-semester introduction to biology course for non-science majors, which for many students is their only college-level science course. As such, this course represents an important opportunity for students to develop the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions as they continue with their lives. Rather than being mired down with facts and vocabulary, the typical non-science major student needs information presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, the content should be meaningful. Students do much better when they understand why biology is relevant to their everyday lives. For these reasons, Concepts of Biology is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand.We also strive to show the interconnectedness of topics within this extremely broad discipline. In order to meet the needs of today's instructors and students, we maintain the overall organization and coverage found in most syllabi for this course. A strength of Concepts of Biology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Concepts of Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand--and apply--key concepts.

Population and Community Ecology

Population and Community Ecology PDF Author: E. C. Pielou
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9780677035802
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description


Population Biology

Population Biology PDF Author: Alan Hastings
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1475727313
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Population biology has been investigated quantitatively for many decades, resulting in a rich body of scientific literature. Ecologists often avoid this literature, put off by its apparently formidable mathematics. This textbook provides an introduction to the biology and ecology of populations by emphasizing the roles of simple mathematical models in explaining the growth and behavior of populations. The author only assumes acquaintance with elementary calculus, and provides tutorial explanations where needed to develop mathematical concepts. Examples, problems, extensive marginal notes and numerous graphs enhance the book's value to students in classes ranging from population biology and population ecology to mathematical biology and mathematical ecology. The book will also be useful as a supplement to introductory courses in ecology.

Competition

Competition PDF Author: P.A. Keddy
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401006946
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 565

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Book Description
Competition is one of the most important factors controlling the distribution and abundance of living creatures. Sperm cells racing up reproductive tracts, beetle larvae battling inside single seeds, birds defending territories, and trees interfering with the light available to neighbours, are all engaged in competition for limited resources. Along with predation and mutualism, competition is one of the three major biological forces that assemble living communities. Recent experimental work, much of it only from the last few decades, has enhanced human knowledge of the prevalence of competition in nature. There are acacia trees that use ants to damage vines, beetles that compete in arenas for access to dung balls, tadpoles that apparently poison their neighbours, birds that smash the eggs of potential competitors, and plants that associate with fungi in order to increase access to soil resources. While intended as an up-to-date reference work on the state of this branch of ecology, the many non-technical examples will make interesting reading for those with a general interest in nature. Greatly expanded from the first prize-winning edition, there are entirely new chapters, including one on resources and another on competition gradients in nature. The author freely ranges across all major taxonomic groups in search of evidence. The question of whether competition occurs is no longer useful, the author maintains; rather the challenge is to determine when and where each kind of competition is important in natural systems. For this reason, variants of competition such as intensity, asymmetry and hierarchies are singled out for particular attention. The book concludes with the difficulties of finding general principles in complex ecological communities, and illustrates the limitations on knowledge that arise out of the biased conduct of scientists themselves. Competition can be found elsewhere in living systems other than ecological communities, at sub-microscopic scales in the interactions of enzymes and neural pathways, and over large geographic areas in the spread of human populations and contrasting ideas about the world. Human societies are therefore also examined for evidence of the kinds of competition found among other living organisms. Using an array of historical examples, including Biblical conflicts, the use of noblemen's sons in the Crusades, the Viking raids in Europe, strategic bombing campaigns in the Second World War, and ethnic battles of the Balkans, the book illustrates how most of the aspects of competition illustrated with plants and animals can be extended to the interactions of human beings and their societies.

From Populations to Ecosystems

From Populations to Ecosystems PDF Author: Michel Loreau
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400834163
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
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.

The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57)

The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57) PDF Author: Mark Vellend
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400883792
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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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.

Ecology of Shallow Lakes

Ecology of Shallow Lakes PDF Author: Marten Scheffer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402031548
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
Ecology of Shallow Lakes brings together current understanding of the mechanisms that drive the diametrically opposite states of water clarity, shown by the cover paintings, found in many shallow lakes and ponds. It gives an outline of the knowledge gained from field observations, experimental work, and restoration studies, linked by a solid theoretical framework. The book focuses on shallow lakes, but the lucid treatment of plankton dynamics, resuspension, light climate and the role of vegetation is relevant to a much wider range of aquatic systems. The models that are used remain simple and most analyses are graphical rather than algebraic. The text will therefore appeal to students, scientists and policy makers in the field of ecology, fisheries, pollution studies and water management, and also to theoreticans who will benefit from the many real-world examples of topics such as predation and competition theory, bifurcation analysis and catastrophe theory. Perhaps most importantly, the book is a remarkable example of how large field experiments and simple models can catalyze our insight into complex ecosystems. Marten Scheffer wrote this book while at the Institute of Inland Water Management and Waste Treatment, RIZA, Lelystad, The Netherlands. He is currently at the Department of Water Quality Management and Aquatic Ecology of the Wageningen Agricultural University. Reviews `Much rarer are textbooks that so succinctly sum up the state-of-the-art knowledge about a subject that they become instant `bibles'. This book is one of these. It is probably one of the best biological textbooks I have read. Scheffer masterfully pulls all this information together under one cover and presents a coherent account, which will serve as a benchmark for the subject. The reader will not gain any great insight into the breeding biology of pike from this book, nor learn much about dragonflies or newts. They will, however, come to understand the essential nature of shallow lakes or, as the author puts it, `how shallow lakes work'. Overall, this book will be of great interest to practical and theoretical ecologists, students and managers in all fields of biology. All freshwater ecologists should certainly read it.' Simon Harrison in Journal of Ecology, 86 `The book by Scheffer can be seen as a milestone in the recognition of shallow lakes as a research topic in its own right. Scheffer uses three approaches concurrently to unravel the functioning of shallow lakes: 1) statistical analysis of large datasets from a variety of lakes; 2) simple abstract models made up of a few non-linear ordinary differential equations, which he calls `mini-models'; and 3) logical reasoning based on a mixture of results from fieldwork, experiments and models. What is new is that Scheffer links mathematics very nicely with what one feels is a correct description of the functioning of a shallow lake. Employing logical reasoning, Scheffer combines all these sources of knowledge into a general, coherent picture of the functioning of a shallow lake.' Wolf Mooij in Aquatic Ecology, 32

Population Biology of Grasses

Population Biology of Grasses PDF Author: G. P. Cheplick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521572053
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Dynamics.

Population and Community Ecology

Population and Community Ecology PDF Author: The Open The Open Courses Library
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781706618713
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 55

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Book Description
Population and Community Ecology Concepts of Biology Communities include all the different species living in a given area. The variety of these species is referred to as biodiversity. Many organisms have developed defenses against predation and herbivory, including mechanical defenses, warning coloration, and mimicry. Two species cannot exist indefinitely in the same habitat competing directly for the same resources. Species may form symbiotic relationships such as commensalism, mutualism, or parasitism. Community structure is described by its foundation and keystone species. Communities respond to environmental disturbances by succession: the predictable appearance of different types of plant species, until a stable community structure is established. Chapter Outline: Population Demographics and Dynamics Population Growth and Regulation The Human Population Community Ecology The Open Courses Library introduces you to the best Open Source Courses.