Biological Diversity
Biological Diversity
$118.00
USDThis book describes the natural processes that must be understood in order to manage and protect the Earth's biological diversity. The author begins with a clear definition of biological diversity and a summary of the types of diversity patterns found on Earth. Next he lays out a scientific framework for understanding the complex array of diversity patterns, including the distribution of rare species to landscape patterns visible from space. Many fascinating case studies of coral reefs, fire-maintained shrublands, prairies, and tropical rain forests illustrate the theories and models described in this book, including such fundamental issues as endemism, invasions, and extinction in temperate, tropical, and marine ecosystems.
- Management of biodiversity becoming increasingly important worldwide
- Very 'green' issue
- Discusses both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, with emphasis on rainforests
Reviews & endorsements
"...should be read by anyone interested in learning more about patterns of diversity of organisms that share the Earth with humans, and by everyone concerned with their rapid disappearance...Huston begins a discussion that could lead to informed policies for balancing preservation of diversity with human needs." Aaron Ellison, Plant Science Bulletin
"...one of the most satisfactory and certainly one of the most readable books to emerge on the scene...it is a single-author work, so it has a higher degree of internal consistency and structure. This makes it far more effective as an undergraduate text..." Peter Moore, New Scientist
"...a bold attempt to find a common link, a grand unifying theory, underpinning many of the major patterns in the way in which organisms assemble themselves into communities on the face of the planet...a feature and strength of the text is the huge amount of literature, much of it published decades ago, synthesized and summarized within 25 chapters...full of interesting, untested ideas..." John H. Lawton, Nature
"...a book of remarkable scope...actually a massive review of factor and processes that might conceivably impact upon the species that occur in any given area...Huston has produced something more akin to a text of ecology, with diversity as a leitmotif. In fact, it might be interesting to organize an introductory ecology course around exactly that theme, and use this book as the text...There is lots of food for thought here...and it's a bargain." David Currie, Ecoscience
"...should be required reading for graduate-level courses in ecology and would greatly enhance the knowledge of those working in the conservation of biodiversity. An essential acquisition for academic libraries." Choice
Product details
November 1994Paperback
9780521369305
704 pages
228 × 150 × 38 mm
1.11kg
193 b/w illus. 24 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- Part I. Raw Materials and Tools:
- 2. General patterns of species diversity
- 3. The assessment of species diversity
- Part II. Theories of Species Diversity: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium:
- 4. Equilibrium processes and the maintenance of landscape-scale species diversity
- 5. Non-equilibrium processes and the maintenance of local species diversity
- Part III. Mechanisms that Regulate Biological Diversity at Various Spatial and Temporal Scales:
- 6. Diversity within populations
- 7. Individual properties and the structure of communities and ecosystems
- 8. Landscape patterns: disturbance and diversity
- 9. Landscape patterns: succession and temporal change
- 10. Landscape patterns: gradients and zonation
- Part IV. Case Studies: Patterns and Hypotheses:
- 11. Case studies: endemism and invasions
- 12. Case studies: species diversity in marine ecosystems
- 13. Case studies: species diversity in fire-influenced ecosystems
- 14. Case studies: species diversity in tropical rain forests
- 15. Concluding comments: the economics of biological diversity.
