The Anolis lizards of the Caribbean are ideally suited for the study of evolutionary ecology. Offering fascinating insights into the more than 150 species dispersed throughout the Caribbean islands, Jonathan Roughgarden details the differences between species in a wide range of behavioral and physical characteristics, including foraging behaviors, body size, and habitat use, resulting from evolutionary divergences concurrent with the plate-tectonic origins of the region. This book will be of interest to students and researchers--ecology and theoretical, tropical, and population biology.

This work provides a unified theory that addresses the important problem of the origin and maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations. With modern molecular techniques, variation is found in all species, sometimes at astonishingly high levels. Yet, despite these observations, the forces that maintain variation within and between species have been difficult subjects of study. Because they act very weakly and operate over vast time scales, scientists must rely on indirect inferences and speculative mathematical models. However, despite these obstacles, many advances have been made....

This study draws on data from numerous sources that support the paradigm of natural hybridization as an important evolutionary process. The review of these data results in a challenge to the framework used by many evolutionary biologists, which sees the process of natural hybridization as maladaptive because it represents a violation of divergent evolution. In contrast, this book presents evidence of a significant role for natural hybridization in furthering adaptive evolution and evolutionary diversification in both plants and animals.

This book introduces readers to a set of powerful and extremely flexible modeling techniques, starting at "square one" and continuing with carefully chosen applications. Some of these applications of methodology include insect oviposition behavior, overwinter survival of birds and fish, avian migration, resource management, conservation biology, agroecology, and human behavior. This book also explains how to construct, test, and use dynamic state variable models in a wide range of contexts in evolutionary ecology. And its complete and up-to-date coverage allows readers to immediately begin...

This book introduces readers to a set of powerful and extremely flexible modeling techniques, starting at "square one" and continuing with carefully chosen applications. Some of these applications of methodology include insect oviposition behavior, overwinter survival of birds and fish, avian migration, resource management, conservation biology, agroecology, and human behavior. This book also explains how to construct, test, and use dynamic state variable models in a wide range of contexts in evolutionary ecology, and its complete and up-to-date coverage allows readers to immediately begin...

Combining insights from observation, experimentation, and theory, The Origin, Expansion, and Demise of Plant Species offers a broad overview of species as dynamic entities that arise, have unique evolutionary histories, and ultimately go extinct. It begins with a review of species concepts and the exposition of a new concept; it then addresses plant speciation, the expansion of species from their narrow centers of origin, intraspecific differentiation, and contact zones between differentiated population systems. Special attention is given to the breakdown of cohesion among populations by...

Combining insights from observation, experimentation, and theory, The Origin, Expansion, and Demise of Plant Species offers a broad overview of species as dynamic entities that arise, have unique evolutionary histories, and ultimately go extinct. It begins with a review of species concepts and the exposition of a new concept; it then addresses plant speciation, the expansion of species from their narrow centers of origin, intraspecific differentiation, and contact zones between differentiated population systems. Special attention is given to the breakdown of cohesion among populations by...

The application of molecular technology has greatly increased our understanding of the role of chromosomal change in plant evolution. There is now a broad database on genome size variation within and among species and a wide array of nuclear and cytoplasmic genetic markers. There is a variety of literatures addressing this subject but much of it is scattered. This book created a contemporary synthesis of work in this area and addresses issues such as herogeneity, polyploidy, chromosomal rearrangements within species and phenotypic consequences of chromosome doubling.

When a parasite invades an ant, does the ant behave like other ants? Maybe not-and if it doesn't, who, if anyone, benefits from the altered behaviors? The parasite? The ant? Parasites and the Behavior of Animals shows that parasite-induced behavioral alterations are more common than we might realize, and it places these alterations in an evolutionary and ecological context. Emphasizing eukaryotic parasites, the book examines the adaptive nature of behavioral changes associated with parasitism, exploring the effects of these changes on parasite transmission, parasite avoidance, and...

Birds show bewildering diversity in their life histories, mating systems and risk of extinction. Why do albatrosses delay reproduction for the first 12 years of their life while zebra finches breed in their first year? Why are fairy-wrens so sexually promiscuous while swans show lifelong monogamy? Why are over a quarter of parrot species threatened with global extinction while woodpeckers and cuckoos remain secure? Some of these topics are classic problems in natural and sexual selection, while others have arisen in the last decade, such as variation in genetic mating systems or extinction...