Ecology

Taking a functional rather than an ecosystem or a utilitarian approach, Thomas and Packham provide a concise account of the structure of woodlands and forests. Using examples from around the world - from polar treelines to savannahs to tropical rain...

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The effects of artificial (and natural) pesticides on organisms other than the target organisms and on the environment in general have become increasingly important in recent years. This has been accentuated by the concerns over the damage these products...

Our knowledge of the ecology of tropical rain-forest trees is limited, with detailed information available for perhaps only a few hundred of the many thousand of species that occur. Yet a good understanding of the trees is essential to unravelling the...

Seagrasses occur in coastal zones throughout the world, in the part of the marine habitat that is most heavily influenced by humans. Decisions about coastal management therefore often involve seagrasses, but despite a growing awareness of the importance...

What determines the number and size of the seeds produced by a plant? How often should it reproduce them? How often should a plant produce them? Why and how are seeds dispersed, and what are the implications for the diversity and composition of...

Temperate-zone forests have been shaped by fire, wind and grazing over thousands of years. This book provides a major contribution to the study of their dynamics by considering three important themes: * The combined influence of wind, fire and herbivory...

The fixation of nitrogen - the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to a form which plants can use - is fundamental to the productivity of the biosphere and therefore to the ability of the expanding human population to feed itself. Although the existence...

The urgent need to ensure the conservation of biological diversity is now widely recognised, but practical measures to protect endangered species and habitats are still carried out on a small scale and generally limited to developed countries. This...

The cause of global change has been the subject of heated debate in the past few years, especially in relation to climate change and biodiversity decline. However, a systematic explanation for changes in the biosphere at global level has still to be...

Covering sex allocation, sex determination and operational sex ratios, this multi-author volume provides both a conceptual context and an instruction in methods for many aspects of sex ratio research. Theory, statistical analysis and genetics are each...

The human population of the world is increasing by about 1.5% per annum, adding about one hundred million people to the human ark each year. Not all agree that population growth on this scale constitutes a problem, but there is wide acceptance that the...

Insects are the most diverse and abundant animals that share our world, and conservation initiatives are increasingly needed and being implemented globally, to safe guard the wealth of individual species. This book provides sufficient background...

Within both the social and environmental sciences, much of the data collected is within a spatial context and requires statistical analysis for interpretation. The purpose of this book is to describe current methods for the analysis of spatial data...

The Asian elephant has had a unique cultural association with people. Unfortunately, elephants and people have also been in conflict, resulting in the decline in elephants throughout their former range in Southern Asia. This book provides an ecological...

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As experimental organisms, spiders offer ecologists a unique opportunity to examine the concept of the ecological community and the role which field experimentation can play in evaluating theories of population and community ecology. In this book, David...

It is generally recognized that larger animals eat more, live longer, have larger offspring, and so on; but it is unusual to see these commonplace observations as a basis for scientific biology. A large number of empirically based relationships describe...

When this book was first published in 1989, attempts to reintroduce plants or animals into their native habitat were still relatively rare, and those that were adequately planned, designed, funded and monitored over the course of years are even scarcer...

Tropical fish present some of the best examples of how new species evolve and how complex ecological communities are maintained. Their study has generated important new ideas on the roles of ecology and behaviour in the evolution of species and...

Mutualistic interactions between ants and plants involve rewards offered by plants and services performed by ants in a mutually advantageous relationship. The rewards are principally food and/or nest sites, and ants in turn perform a number of services...

This book was first published in 1979. If we are to improve our control and conservation of the food resources of the oceans of the world it is particularly important to increase our understanding of the basic mechanisms that control the abundance,...

When this book was first published in 1991, developments in the study of theoretical ecology had led to the appearance of more complex concepts in ecosystem theory. As a result, ecosystems may be viewed as networks of coexisting living organisms and...

Eastern African rain forests are remarkable in their high level of endemism. Miocene uplift of the central African plateau separated these montane and coastal forests from the main Guineo-Congolian forest of west and central Africa. Since then, stable...

Arthropods are the most diverse group of organisms on our planet and the tropical rainforests represent the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. This book, written by 79 authors contributing to 35 chapters, aims to provide an overview of data...

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Scientists tend to take the thought processes that drive their research for granted, often learning them indirectly by observing first their supervisors and then their colleagues. This book emphasises the advantages of being explicit about these thought...

Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific experiment prior to the experiment being performed. Many funding agencies and institutional review boards now require power...

Insect Pest Management and Ecological Research explores the ecological research required for development of strategies to manage pest insects, with particular emphasis on the scientific principles involved in the design and conduct of pest-related...

Habitat management is commonly used to maintain and enhance the biological interest of many areas of semi-natural habitat where natural processes no longer create suitable conditions for desired species. Habitat restoration and creation is increasingly...

This book introduces readers to a set of powerful and extremely flexible modelling techniques, starting at "square one" and continuing with carefully chosen applications. Some of these applications of methodology include insect oviposition...

Behavioural ecologists study the strategies that individual animals use to maximize their genetic representation in future generations; conservation biologists study small populations and attempt to stem the tide of species extinctions. In the last few...

The world's marine fisheries are in trouble, as a direct result of overfishing and the overcapacity of fishing fleets. Despite intensive management efforts, the problems still persist in many areas, resulting in many fisheries being neither sustainable...

The profound consequences of the deceptively obvious statement that plants stand still but their genes don't are only just becoming clear. In this volume, an international team of authors, experts in the field of population biology, aim to advance our...

Plants provide insects with a range of specific foods, such as nectar, pollen and food bodies. In exchange, they may obtain various services from arthropods. The role of food rewards in the plant-pollinator mutualism has been broadly covered. This book,...

Power analysis is an essential tool for determining whether a statistically significant result can be expected in a scientific experiment prior to the experiment being performed. Many funding agencies and institutional review boards now require power...

The predictability of the physical arrangement of plants, at whatever scale it is viewed, is referred to as their spatial pattern. Spatial pattern is a crucial aspect of vegetation which has important implications not only for the plants themselves, but...

The multitrophic level approach to ecology addresses the complexity of food webs much more realistically than the traditional focus on simple systems and interactions. Only in the last few decades have ecologists become interested in the nature of more...

This groundbreaking book is a contemporary global synthesis of the rapidly developing and important field of insect conservation biology. Insects play important roles in terrestrial ecological processes and in maintaining the world as we know it. They...

Pinus is a remarkable genus of trees with a very large distribution range in the northern hemisphere. Where they occur, pines usually form the dominant vegetation cover and are extremely important components of ecosystems. They also provide a wide range...