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For the first time in book form, the study of distribution, abundance, and population size variation in animals is cast in an evolutionary framework. This book argues that evolved characters of organisms such as morphology, behaviour, and life history influence strongly their ecological relationships, including the way that populations fluctuate through time and space.
Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. The general thesis; 2. Historical views on distribution, abundance, and population dynamics; 3. The focal species - basic biology; 4. The focal species - emergent properties; 5. The focal group - the common sawflies; 6. Convergent constraints in divergent taxonomic groups; 7. Divergent constraints and emergent properties; 8. Common constraints and divergent emergent properties; 9. The thesis applied to parasitoids, vertebrate taxa, and plants; 10. Theory development and synthesis; Glossary; References; Author index; Taxonomic index; Subject index.
Peter W. Price is Regents' Professor Emeritus at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, USA. Over the past 40 years Professor Price has contributed over 200 research articles and book chapters to the scientific literature and has been sole author or an editor of 11 books. He has received the Founder's Memorial Award from the Entomological Society of America and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London.
This book is clearly written, well illustrated, and logically organized...[it] is very readable and presents an excellent and well-supported argument for the inclusion of macroevolutionary data within macroecological analyses. The ideas put forth are certainly worthy of consideration by all researchers and students in evolutionary and ecological biology. Ecoscience "The book is satisfyingly rich in detail, from descriptions of Price's focal system ... and the history of the study of insect population dynamics, to his breadth of coverage within insects." The Quarterly Review of Biology
