The Theory of Island Biogeography PDF Download

Author: Robert H. MacArthur
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691088365
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Population theory.

Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140083192X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 988

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Book Description
Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's The Theory of Island Biogeography, first published by Princeton in 1967, is one of the most influential books on ecology and evolution to appear in the past half century. By developing a general mathematical theory to explain a crucial ecological problem--the regulation of species diversity in island populations--the book transformed the science of biogeography and ecology as a whole. In The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, some of today's most prominent biologists assess the continuing impact of MacArthur and Wilson's book four decades after its publication. Following an opening chapter in which Wilson reflects on island biogeography in the 1960s, fifteen chapters evaluate and demonstrate how the field has extended and confirmed--as well as challenged and modified--MacArthur and Wilson's original ideas. Providing a broad picture of the fundamental ways in which the science of island biogeography has been shaped by MacArthur and Wilson's landmark work, The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited also points the way toward exciting future research.

Author: Robert J. Whittaker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198566115
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Isolation, extinction, conservation, biodiversity, hotspots.

Author: Stephen P. Hubbell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400837529
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Despite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context. Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book, Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales. Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers.

Author: Mark Herbert Williamson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
The ecological and evolutionary aspects of island populations are both treated at length in this book, which combines natural history, biogeography, and a critical examination of theoretical concepts in ecology and evolution by the study of real examples.

Author: D.E. Alexander
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0412740508
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
A strongly interdisciplinary and wide-ranging survey of the environment of life on Earth: the most authoritative and comprehensive source on environmental science to be collected together in a single volume. Unique in presenting both a basic overview and detailed information on environmental topics. Entries are arranged in an encyclopedic A-Z format and contain extensive cross-references to related entries, as well as references to primary and secondary literature. Over 370 separate entries prepared by 228 leading experts from 25 countries. Incorporates 25 substantial in-depth treatments of key areas and also includes biographies of leading scientists and environmentalists. Contains a comprehensive subject index and a citation index of all referenced authors. The Encyclopedia of Environmental Science is a multidisciplinary reference work, which crosses many fields of interest and includes a wide variety of scholarly and authoritative articles on mankind's environment. It provides information on the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and geosphere and is careful to focus on the connections between these realms and the Earth as a whole. Taken as a whole, the Encyclopedia surveys basic environmental science and applied areas of study, and is drawn from the physical sciences, life sciences and social sciences. The 228 authors from 25 different countries, many of whom are the leading authorities in their field, include biologists, ecologists, geographers, geologists, political scientists, soil scientists, hydrologists, climatologists, and representatives of many other disciplines and academic specialties. The work, which is amply referenced and cross-referenced, consists of substantial essays on major topics, medium-sized entries and short definitional entries. The shorter entries include useful biographies of leading scientists and environmentalists. The Encyclopedia will be invaluable to all readers interested in the environment of life on Earth, its past, present and future, and its physical and social dimensions. The text provides a source of well-classified basic information as well as covering the leading theories and important debates in the environmental sciences. In addition, the book also includes assessments of the future prospects for the Earth's environment in the face of pollution, population increases and the accelerating transformation of land, air, water and vegetational systems. The Encyclopedia is unique in presenting both a basic overview and detailed information on environmental topics and is suitable for the general scientific reader and the specialized environmental scientist in academic institutions, research laboratories or private practice.

Author: Thomas J. Matthews
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108477070
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description
Provides a comprehensive synthesis of a fundamental phenomenon, the species-area relationship, addressing theory, evidence and application.

Author: Larry D. Harris
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226317649
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
In this poineering application of island biogeography theory, Harris presents an alternative to current practices of timber harvesting. "Harris pulls together many threads of biological thinking about islands and their effect on plant and animal survival and evolution. He weaves these threads into a model for managing forest lands in a manner that might serve both our short-term economic and social needs as well as what some people feel is our ancient charge to be steward of all parts of creation."—American Forests Winner of the 1986 Wildlife Society Publication Award

Author: David Quammen
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448137403
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
Why have island ecosystems always suffered such high rates of extinction? In our age, with all the world's landscapes, from Tasmania to the Amazon to Yellowstone, now being carved into island-like fragments by human activity, the implications of this question are more urgent than ever. Over the past eight years, David Quammen has followed the threads of island biogeography on a globe-encircling journey of discovery.

Author: Samuel M. Scheiner
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226736865
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Despite claims to the contrary, the science of ecology has a long history of building theories. Many ecological theories are mathematical, computational, or statistical, though, and rarely have attempts been made to organize or extrapolate these models into broader theories. The Theory of Ecology brings together some of the most respected and creative theoretical ecologists of this era to advance a comprehensive, conceptual articulation of ecological theories. The contributors cover a wide range of topics, from ecological niche theory to population dynamic theory to island biogeography theory. Collectively, the chapters ably demonstrate how theory in ecology accounts for observations about the natural world and how models provide predictive understandings. It organizes these models into constitutive domains that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of ecological understanding. This book is a milestone in ecological theory and is certain to motivate future empirical and theoretical work in one of the most exciting and active domains of the life sciences.