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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Animal ecology
Every year, countless juvenile Pacific salmon leave streams andrivers on their migration to feeding grounds in the North Pacific Oceanand the Bering Sea. After periods ranging from a few months to severalyears, adult salmon enter rivers along the coasts of Asia and NorthAmerica to spawn and complete their life cycle. Within this generaloutline, various life history patterns, both among and within species,involve diverse ways of exploiting freshwater, estuarine, and marinehabitats. There are seven species of Pacific salmon. Five (coho,chinook chum, pink, and sockeye) occur in both North America and Asia.Their complex life histories and spectacular migrations have longfascinated biologists and amateurs alike. Physiological Ecology of Pacific Salmon providescomprehensive reviews by leading researchers of the physiologicaladaptations that allow Pacific Salmon to sustain themselves in thediverse environments in which they live. It begins with an analysis ofenergy expenditure and continues with reviews of locomotion, growth,feeding, and nutrition. Subsequent chapters deal with osmoticadjustments enabling the passage between fresh and salt water, nitrogenexcretion and regulation of acid-base balance, circulation and gastransfer, and finally, responses to stress. This thorough and authoritative volume will be a valuable referencefor students and researchers of biology and fisheries science as theyseek to understand the environmental requirements for the perpetuationof these unique and valuable species.
Biological Diversity provides an up to date, authoritative review of the methods of measuring and assessing biological diversity, together with their application. The book's emphasis is on quantifying the variety, abundance, and occurrence of taxa, and on providing objective and clear guidance for both scientists and managers. This is a fast-moving field and one that is the focus of intense research interest. However the rapid development of new methods, the inconsistent and sometimes confusing application of old ones, and the lack of consensus in the literature about the best approach, means that there is a real need for a current synthesis. Biological Diversity covers fundamental measurement issues such as sampling, re-examines familiar diversity metrics (including species richness, diversity statistics, and estimates of spatial and temporal turnover), discusses species abundance distributions and how best to fit them, explores species occurrence and the spatial structure of biodiversity, and investigates alternative approaches used to assess trait, phylogenetic, and genetic diversity. The final section of the book turns to a selection of contemporary challenges such as measuring microbial diversity, evaluating the impact of disturbance, assessing biodiversity in managed landscapes, measuring diversity in the imperfect fossil record, and using species density estimates in management and conservation.
A compilation of highly sought-after research focusing on wolf management and recovery programs in North America. Reviews the status of wolves in Canada, the United States, Greenland, and the Trans-Himalayan region. Specific chapters address several themes: historical perspectives and the evolution of wolf-human relationships; the status, biology, and management of wolves; restoration, reintroduction, and control programs; wolf-prey dynamics and implications of conservation practices; behavior and social interactions; taxonomy; diseases and physiology; and, research and management techniques. Proceedings of the Second North American Symposium on Wolves, 1992. Papers by: L. Boitani; F.F. Gilbert; R.D. Hayes and J.R. Gunson; F.L. Miller; R.O. Stephenson, W.B. Ballard, C.A. Smith, and K. Richardson; U. Marquard-Peterson; R.P. Thiel and R.R. Ream; P. Schullery and L. Whittlesey; C.E. Kay; D. Dekker, W. Bradford, and J.R. Gunson; J.L. Fox and R.S. Chundawat; S.H. Fritts, D.R. Harms, J.A. Fontaine and M.D. Jimenez; D.K. Boyd, P.C. Pacquet, S. Donelon, R.R. Ream, D.H. Pletscher, and C.C. White; D.R. Parsons and J.E. Nicholopoulos; A.P. Wydeven, R.N. Schultz, and R.P. Thiel; M.K. Phillips, R. Smith, V.G. Henry, and C. Lucash; R.P. Thiel and T. Valen; D.R. Seip; F. Messier; M.S. Boyce; D.J. Vales and J.M. Peek; B.W. Dale, L.G. Adams, and R.T. Bowyer; L.D. Mech, T.J. Meier, J.W. Burch, and L.G. Adams; L.G. Adams, B.W. Dale, and L.D. Mech; D.C. Thomas; D.R. Klein; C.S. Asa; C.S. Asa and L.D. Mech; T.J. Meier, J.W. Burch, L.D. Mech, and L.G. Adams; G.J. Forbes and J.B. Theberge; R.O. Peterson; T.K. Fuller; S.G. Fancy and W.B. Ballard; C. Vila, V. Urios, and J. Castroviejo; R.E. Anderson, B.L.C. Hill, J. Ryon, and J.C. Fentress; W.G. Brewster and S.H. Fritts; R.M. Nowak; R.K. Wayne, N. Lehman, and T.K. Fuller; R.M. Nowak, M.K. Phillips, V.G. Henry, W.C. Hunter, and R. Smith; C.J. Brand, M.J. Pybus, W.B. Ballard, and R.O. Peterson; M.R. Johnson, T.N. Bailey, E.E. Bangs, and R.O. Peterson; M.D. Drag, W.B. Ballard, G.M. Matson, and P.R. Krausman. W.B. Ballard, D.J. Reed, S.G. Fancy, and P.R. Krausman; W.B. Ballard, M.E. McNay, C.L. Gardner, and D.J. Reed; D.A. Haggstrom, A.k. Ruggles, C.M. Harms, and R.O. Stephenson; H.D. Cluff and D.L. Murray; R.D. Boertje, D.G. Kelleyhouse, and R.D. Hayes; R. Reid and D. Janz; R. Coppinger and L. Coppinger; P.L. Clarkson; L.D. Mech; Epilogue by M. Hummel
Birds have colonized almost every terrestrial habitat on the planet
- from the poles to the tropics, and from deserts to high mountain
tops. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Birds focuses on
our current understanding of the unique physiological
characteristics of birds that are of particular interest to
ornithologists, but also have a wider biological relevance.
Biological invaders represent one of the primary threats to the
maintenance of global biodiversity, human health, and the success
of human economic enterprises. The continuing globalization of our
society ensures that the need to understand the process of
biological invasion will only increase in the future. There is also
a growing recognition that the study of biological invaders
provides a unique insight into basic questions in ecology and
evolution.
This book is unique in providing a global overview of alpine (high
mountain) habitats that occur above the natural (cold-limited) tree
line, describing the factors that have shaped them over both
ecological and evolutionary timescales. The broad geographic
coverage helps synthesize common features whilst revealing
differences in the world's major alpine systems from the Arctic to
the Tropics. The words "barren" and "wasteland" have often been
applied to describe landscapes beyond the tree line. However, a
closer look reveals a large diversity of habitats, assemblages and
individual taxa in the alpine zone, largely connected to
topographic diversity within individual alpine regions.
Is it possible to omit parasites when studying free-living
organisms? The answer is clearly no! Parasites have evolved
independently in numerous animal lineages, and now make up a
considerable proportion of the biodiversity of life. Ecologists,
epidemiologists, conservationists and evolutionary biologists are
increasingly aware of the universal significance of parasites to
the study of ecology and evolution where they have become a
powerful model system. This book provides a summary of the issues
involved as well as an overview of the possibilities offered by
this research topic including the practical applications for
disease prevention. It uses well-documented case-studies across a
range of scales to illustrate the main trends and prospects in this
area, outlining areas for future research.
Amphibians are the extant descendants of the first vertebrate class to successfully colonize terrestrial environments; hence they occupy a unique position between fish and reptiles. Amphibian skin provides essentially no resistance to evaporative water loss, and consequently daily water turnover rates are an order of magnitude greater than in other terrestrial vertebrate groups. This has led to a suite of physiological, morphological and behavioural adaptations that have allowed a successful terrestrial existence in spite of this apparently spendthrift water retention strategy. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Amphibians provides a synthesis of current research on the comparative physiology of amphibians with a particular emphasis on water balance. It adopts a strong environmental perspective and includes a wealth of information on ecology, phylogeny and development. As with other books in the Ecological and Environmental Physiology Series, the emphasis in this book is on the unique physiological characteristics of the amphibians, although the latest experimental techniques and future research directions are also considered. This accessible text is suitable for both graduate students and researchers in the fields of amphibian comparative physiology and physiological ecology, including specialist courses in amphibian ecology. It will also be of value and use to the many professional herpetologists requiring a concise overview of the topic.
Approximately 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. The exceptional 0.1% reproduce via asexual or clonal means, which vary wildly and are fascinating in their own right. In this book, John C. Avise describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of the world's approximately 100 species of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction. Approximately 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. The exceptional 0.1% reproduce via asexual or clonal means, which vary wildly and are fascinating in their own right. In this book, John C. Avise describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of the world's approximately 100 species of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction. By considering the many facets of sexual abstinence and clonal reproduction in vertebrate animals, Avise sheds new light on the biological meaning and ramifications of standard sexuality.
"The 1995 discovery of malformed frogs in a Minnesota wetland is
one of a few singular events in the history of environmental
awareness that has forever changed our views regarding the plight
of global biodiversity. Lannoo's book offers a comprehensive and
up-to-date assessment of the malformed frog phenomenon and its
likely causes, as well as its possible relation to environmentally
mediated malformations in humans. It immediately ranks as a
definitive source for information regarding malformed frogs in the
larger context of global amphibian declines."--James Hanken,
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Curator in Herpetology, and
Director, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Fundamental Processes in Ecology presents a way to study ecosystems
that is not yet available in ecology textbooks but is resonant with
current thinking in the emerging fields of geobiology and Earth
System Science. It provides an alternative, process-based
classification of ecology and proposes a truly planetary view of
ecological science. To achieve this, it asks (and endeavours to
answer) the question, "what are the fundamental ecological
processes which would be found on any planet with Earth-like,
carbon based, life?"
Once famous for the beauty of its white beaches, reef-ringed islands, and lush forests, today the Philippines is known as an example of the deep costs of ecological decline. In less than a generation, large and small users alike felled the forests, shattered the coral reefs, and over-fished the oceans. The rapid harvest of the once-abundant resources has brought environmental changes: droughts, deadly flash floods, and the collapse of vital fisheries. The consequences have reverberated throughout the country. As the rural economy weakened, millions migrated to the cities, overwhelming the infrastructure and deepening the problems of urban health. Pioneering efforts have been launched to curtail the environmental damage and manage the resources that remain. Trained as a botanist and plant ecologist, writer Barbara Goldoftas traveled extensively throughout the archipelago to document the loss of the natural resources, the dramatic human costs, and efforts to reverse the decline. Along the forest frontier, she met villagers whose fields had been washed away by mudslides and church workers risking their lives to defend the dwindling forests. In coastal villages, she spoke with fishermen who, having watched their catches diminish with the dying reefs, enforced the boundaries of no-take zones. In towns and villages alike, she interviewed local politicians and leaders of non-governmental organizations working to combine conservation and development and keep their communities intact. Written about a country often described as an environmental worst-case scenario, The Green Tiger offers an unusually close look at the consequences of ecological decline and determined efforts to reverse them. Itargues that, rather than destroying a natural resource base, development should integrate conservation and economic growth. It gives a realistic, but optimistic vision of the long process of "nation-building" that is the backdrop of environmental work in a developing country and a new democracy.
This book celebrates the guppy's unique contribution to
evolutionary ecology. Ever since Caryl Haskins described guppy
populations as a 'natural experiment' because of the way predation
pressure varies over a small geographical area, generations of
researchers have been drawn to Trinidad to investigate evolution in
the wild. The species continues to provide classic examples of
natural selection in action and elegantly illustrates how ecology,
evolution, and behaviour are interlinked.
This book addresses the fundamental issues of predator-prey interactions, with an emphasis on predation among arthropods, which have been better studied, and for which the database is more extensive than for the large and rare vertebrate predators. The book should appeal to ecologists interested in the broad issue of predation effects on communities.
Aquatic Ecosystems explains the interplay between various movements
of matter and energy through ecosystems mediated by Dissolved
Organic Matter. This book provides information on how much DOM
there is in a particular aquatic ecosystem and where it originates.
It explains whether the DOM composition varies from time to time
and place to place. It also details how DOM becomes incorporated
into microbial food webs, and gives a better, clarifying,
understanding to its significance of DOM.
This book provides a complete overview of an alpine ecosystem, based on the long-term research conducted at the Niwot Ridge LTER. The alpine ecosystem features conditions near the limits of biological existence, and is a useful laboratory for asking more general ecological questions, because it offers large environmental change over relatively short distances. Factors such as macroclimate, microclimate, soil conditions, biota, and various biological factors change on differing scales, allowing insight into the relative contributions of the different factors on ecological outcomes.
This book describes the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Project which operated from 1986 to 1996 in the southwestern Yukon. It begins by describing the area and its physical setting, and then the background of the project and the wisdom that had accumulated to 1986, on how this system might operate. The details of the experiments set up are presented, partly to help the reader appreciate the difficulty of working at -40 degrees and partly to aid the reader should they contemplate doing similar experiements in the future. Then they examine the three trophic levels of plants, the herbivores, and the predators in detail to provide some surprises about how the individual species operate within the overall system. Finally, they synthesize their findings in a model of the boreal forest vertebrate community, and provide an overview of what they have discovered and what remains to be done. Over the ten years of this project a large number of students and researchers have joined together to produce a picture which makes major advances in our understanding of the boreal forest ecosystem.
Habitat fragmentation and global climate change are the two major environmental threats to the persistence of species and ecosystems. The probability of a species surviving such changes is strongly dependent on its ability to track shifts in the environmental, either by moving between patches of habitat or by rapidly adapting to local condition. These 'solutions' to problems posed by environmental change depend on dispersal propensity, motivating our desire to better understand this important behavior. This book is a comprehensive overview of the new developments in the study of dispersal and the state-of-the-art research on the evolution of this trait. The causes, mechanisms, and consequences of dispersal at the individual, population, and species levels are considered. The promise of new techniques and models for studying dispersal, drawn from molecular biology and demography is explored. Perspectives on the study of dispersal are offered from evolution, conservation biology, and genetics. Throughout the book, theoretical approaches are combined with empirical data, and examples are included from as wide a range of species as possible.
The papers included in this readings text were selected and are introduced by the authors of Ecology as examples of excellent and insightful research that greatly contributes to our grasp and exploration of ecological questions. These studies span the range of ecological perspectives and are significant reading for every student in the life sciences.
This volume brings together evidence that animal behaviour varies geograhically, and explores some of the richness in phenomena, interpretations, and problems which can arise in such studies. The authors summarize advances in the field to date, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches, and give a clear and balanced overview of this area.
As a novel endeavour in ecological science, this book focuses on a
major issue in organismal life on Earth: species coexistence. The
book crosses the usual disciplinary boundaries between
palaeobiology, ecology and evolutionary biology and provides a
timely overview of the patterns and processes of species diversity
and coexistence on a range of spatio-temporal scales. In this
unique synthesis, the author offers a critical and penetrating
examination of the concepts and models of coexistence and community
structure, thus making a valuable contribution to the field of
community ecology. There is an emphasis on clarity and
accessibility without sacrificing scientific rigour, making this
book suitable for both advanced students and individual researchers
in ecology, palaeobiology and environmental and evolutionary
biology.
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.
With canny insight and bone-dry wit, John Alcock, a specialist in the ecology of the American Southwest, introduces us to the lives and loves of desert insects as they forage through his backyard oasis. Creating his own desert garden behind his suburban home in Tempe, Arizona, Alcock scrutinizes every square inch of soil detailing the exotic plant life he finds and offering tips on its peccadilloes and preservation. The true heroes of this story, however, are the bugs of Alcock's backyard. We are drawn into complex plots almost biblical in nature of life and love, survival and death. Two male earwigs caught in each other's pincers battle for a prized female. A female mantis finishes copulating, beheads her mate, and cannibalizes his body for its precious protein. With each detail, Alcock pieces together the entire ecosystem of his desert paradise. Always amusing and instructive, and sometimes dramatic, In a Desert Garden provides an eye-opening meditation on the joys of planting, weeding, pruning, and, most of all, bug-hunting.
Melanism: Evolution in Action describes investigations into a ubiquitous biological phenomenon, the existence of dark, or melanic, forms of many species of mammals, insects, and some plants. Melanism is a particularly exciting phenomenon in terms of our understanding of evolution. Unlike many other polymorphisms, the rise of a melanic population within a species is a visible alteration. Not only this, but melanism may sometimes occur dramatically quickly compared to other evolutionary change. Examples of melanism include one of the most famous illustrations of Darwinian natural selection, the peppered moth. This book, the first written on melanism since 1973, gives a lucid and up-to-date appraisal of the subject. The book is divided into ten chapters. The first four chapters place melanism into its historical and scientific context, with illustrations of its occurrence, and physical and genetic properties. Chapters 5-9 look in more detail at melanism in moths and ladybirds, explaining the diversity of evolutionary reasons for melanism, and the complexities underlying this apparently simple phenomenon. The final chapter shows how the study of melanism has contibuted to our understanding of biological evolution as a whole. Written in an engaging and readable style, by an author whose enthusiasm and depth of knowledge is apparent throughout, this book will be welcomed by all students and researchers in the fields of evolution, ecology, entomology, and genetics. It will also be of relevance to professional and amateur entomologists and lepidopterists alike.
This unique volume of thirty essays, by fifty-three internationally known scholars, honours C.S. (Rufus) Churcher, the distinguished Canadian palaeontologist. The papers focus on late Cenozoic mammals in North America and Africa and provide both site-specific descriptions of faunas and their associated geological contexts, and more general syntheses of regional palaeoenvironments and biogeography. The volume provides a much-needed overview of current research. The stature of the researchers who have contributed to the volume, and the breadth of the material presented, is a reflection of Churcher’s diverse research interests. The first section contains eleven papers on the palaeoenvironment and palaeoecology of Quaternary mammals in North America; the second section has 9 contributions describing faunas and morphological analyses of North American Quaternary mammals; and the final section contains nine papers on the palaeoecology and palaeoenvironments of late Cenozoic mammals of Africa. In this final section, Alan Gentry pays tribute to Churcher by naming a species after him: Budorcas churcheri. The volume contains individual discussions of North American fossil prairie dogs, mastodons, zebras, short-faced bears, sabre cats, lions, giant armadillos, elk-moose, caribou and muskrats, as well as African hyaenas, zebras, hipparion horses, antelopes, rodents, and giraffes. |
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