Nonequilibrium Ecology

ISBN-13: 9780521854344 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 223 str.

Klaus Rohde

Opis

Ecology has long been shaped by ideas that stress the sharing of resources and the competition for those resources, and by the assumption that populations and communities typically exist under equilibrium conditions in habitats saturated with both individuals and species. However, much evidence contradicts these assumptions and it is likely that nonequilibrium is much more widespread than might be expected. This book is unique in focusing on nonequilibrium aspects of ecology, providing evidence for nonequilibrium and equilibrium in populations (and metapopulations), in extant communities and in ecological systems over evolutionary time.

Recenzje

Nonequilibrium Ecology is a useful compilation of facts, theories, and opinions related to the competition debate..."
Franz J. Weissing, Ecology

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Concepts and problems; 2. Nonequilibrium in communities; 3. Interspecific competition: definition and effects on species; 4. Interspecific competition: effects in communities and conclusion; 5. Non-competitive mechanisms responsible for niche restriction and segregation; 6. Patterns over evolutionary time, present mass-extinctions; 7. Some detailed examples at the population/metapopulation level; 8. Some detailed examples at the community level; 9. Some detailed biogeographical/macroecological patterns; 10. An autecological comparison: the ecology of aspidogastrea; 11. What explains the differences found? A summary, and prospects for an ecology of the future; acknowledgments; References.