Tropical areas present ecological, cultural and political problems that demand analysis that is distinct from general ecological analysis. The tropical environment is special in many ways, from the lack of a biological down season (winter), to generally poor soil conditions, to a reliance on traditional methods of agriculture in an undeveloped society. At a time when the sustainability of natural resource use in the tropics has become a very big issue Tropical Agroecosystems provides a critical scientific foundation for developing a sustainable agriculture component within this process.

Presenting a broad range of approaches to agroecosystem analysis, the text addresses specific ecological issues associated with agricultural production, examines two case studies of agricultural transformation and its effect on biodiversity, and discusses key landscape relationships between agroecosystems, wildlife, and human disease.

The practice of growing two or more crops together is widespread throughout the tropics and is becoming increasingly practised in temperate agriculture. The benefits of nutrient exchange, reduced weed competition and pathogen control can generate substantial improvements in growth and yield. In this book John Vandermeer, a leading worker on the subject, shows how classical ecological principles, especially those relating to competition and population ecology, can be applied to intercropping. Despite the large amount of research activity directed towards the subject over the last 20 years, the practice of intercropping has, until now, received very little serious academic attention. The Ecology of Intercropping is unique in approaching the question of intercropping from a theoretical point of view. In addition the details of the approach will take as their starting point well-accepted ecological theory. Using this basis the author shows how the approach can be used to design and evaluate intercropping systems to improve agricultural yields.

Ecology is capturing the popular imagination like never before, with issues such as climate change, species extinctions, and habitat destruction becoming ever more prominent. At the same time, the science of ecology has advanced dramatically, growing in mathematical and theoretical sophistication. Here, two leading experts present the fundamental quantitative principles of ecology in an accessible yet rigorous way, introducing students to the most basic of all ecological subjects, the structure and dynamics of populations.

John Vandermeer and Deborah Goldberg show that populations are more than simply collections of individuals. Complex variables such as distribution and territory for expanding groups come into play when mathematical models are applied. Vandermeer and Goldberg build these models from the ground up, from first principles, using a broad range of empirical examples, from animals and viruses to plants and humans. They address a host of exciting topics along the way, including age-structured populations, spatially distributed populations, and metapopulations.

This second edition of "Population Ecology" is fully updated and expanded, with additional exercises in virtually every chapter, making it the most up-to-date and comprehensive textbook of its kind.Provides an accessible mathematical foundation for the latest advances in ecologyFeatures numerous exercises and examples throughoutIntroduces students to the key literature in the fieldThe essential textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate studentsAn online illustration package is available to professors