Primer of Ecological Theory

About this book

Written by one of the leading authorities in ecology, this textbook is suitable for graduate courses in population biology or as a supplementary text for those studying general ecology. |This unique primer presents the first synthesis and overview of current ecological models and teaches ecological theory from the organismal level to the ecosystem level. Throughout the text is accompanied by derivations and illustrations worked out on the computer using MATLAB.

Contents

1. Getting Comfortable Outdoors. Equilibrium Body Temperature. Climate Space. Living at the Edge. 2. Time for a Byte of Food? Searching Predator. Sit-and-Wait Predator. 3. The Sky's the Limit. The Population Bomb. Keeping Track of the Years. Living Through Good Times and Bad. The Invading Wave. 4. Got'ta Stop Somewhere. Measuring Abundance. Detecting Limits to Growth. The Logistic Model of Limits to Growth. Using the Logistic Model with Data. Comparing the Logistic Model to Other Models. The Logistic Weed. Ecological Stability. Ecological Chaos. 5. Ecology Evolving. Genetic Variation. Natural Selection. Genetic Drift. Mutation and Recombination. Does Evolution Optimize? Natural Selection and Population Size. Natural Selection and Age. Hot Links to Other Evolutionary Topics. 6. Populations at Play. Two-Species Lotka-Volterra Model of Competition. Three-Species Lotka-Volterra Competition. Resource-Based Competition Models. Predator-Prey Interaction. Host-Parasitoid Interaction. Host-Pathogen Interaction. Mutualism and Symbiosis. 7. Ecosystems at Work. Biodiversity in Ecological Communities. Biogeochemical Function in Earth Systems. Index.

Customer Reviews