The Economy of Nature.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ricklefs, Robert.

Contributor:

GIC Course Text Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental Science.

Local Subjects:

Environmental Science.

Edition:

Sixth edition.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Ecological systems can be as small as individual organisms or as large as the biosphere

Ecologists study nature from several perspectives

Plants, animals, and microorganisms play different roles in ecological systems

The habitat defines an organism's place in nature; the niche defines its functional role

Ecological systems and processes have characteristic scales in time and space

Ecological systems are governed by basic physical and biological principles

Ecologists study the natural world by observation and experimentation

Humans are a prominent part of the biosphere

Ecologists in the Field: Introduction of the Nile perch into Lake Victoria

The California sea otter

Human impacts on the natural world have increasingly become a focus of ecology

Part I Life and the Physical Environment

Chapter 2 Adaptations to the Environment: Water and Nutrients

Water has many properties favorable to life

Many inorganic nutrients are dissolved in water

Plants obtain water and nutrients from the soil by the osmotic potential of their root cells

Forces generated by transpiration help to move water from roots to leaves

Salt balance and water balance go hand in hand

Ecologists in the Field:Flip-flopping osmoregulation in a small marine invertebrate

Animals must excrete excess nitrogen without losing too much water

Chapter 3 Adaptations to the Physical Environment: Light, Energy, and Heat

Light is the primary source of energy for the biosphere

Plants capture the energy of sunlight by photosynthesis

Plants modify photosynthesis in environments with high water stress

Diffusion limits uptake of dissolved gases from water

Temperature limits the occurrence of life

Each organism functions best under a restricted range of temperatures

The thermal environment includes several avenues of heat gain and loss

Global Change: Carbon dioxide and global warming

Ecologists in the Field: Keeping cool on tropical islands

Homeothermy increases metabolic rate and efficiency

Chapter 4 Variation in the Environment: Climate, Water, and Soil

Global patterns in temperature and precipitation are established by solar radiation

Ocean currents redistribute heat

Latitudinal shifting of the sun's zenith causes seasonal variation in climate

Temperature-induced changes in water density drive seasonal cycles in temperate lakes

Climate and weather undergo irregular and often unpredictable changes

Ecologists in the Field: A half-million-year climatic record

Topographic features cause local variation in climate

Climate and the underlying bedrock interact to diversify soils

Ecologists in the Field: Which came first, the soil or the forest?

Chapter 5 The Biome Concept in Ecology

Climate is the major determinant of plant growth form and distribution

Climate defines the boundaries of terrestrial biomes

Walter climate diagrams distinguish the major terrestrial biomes

Temperate climate zones have average annual temperatures between 5 degrees C and 20 degrees C

Boreal and polar climate zones have average temperatures below 5 degrees C

Climate zones within tropical latitudes have average temperatures exceeding 20 degrees C

The biome concept must be modified for freshwater aquatic systems

Marine aquatic systems are classified principally by water depth

Part II Organisms

Chapter 6 Evolution and Adaptation

The phenotype is the outward expression of an individual's genotype

Adaptations result from natural selection on heritable variation in traits that affect evolutionary fitness

Ecologists in the Field: Rapid evolution in response to an introduced parasitoid

Evolutionary changes in allele frequencies have been documented in natural populations

Individuals can respond to their environments and increase their fitness

Phenotypic plasticity allows individuals to adapt to environmental change

Ecologists in the Field: A reciprocal transplant experiment

Chapter 7 Life Histories and Evolutionary Fitness

Trade-offs in the allocation of resources provide a basis for understanding life histories

Life histories vary along a slowûfast continuum

Life histories balance trade-offs between current and future reproduction

Ecologists in the Field: The cost of parental investment in the European kestrel

Semelparous organisms breed once and then die

Senescence is a decline in physiological function with increasing age

Global Change: Global warming and flowering time

Life histories respond to variation in the environment

Individual life histories are sensitive to environmental influences

Animals forage in a manner that maximizes their fitness

Ecologists in the Field: Optimal foraging by starlings

Data Analysis Module 1 Spatially Partitioned Foraging by Oceanic Seabirds

Chapter 8 Sex and Evolution

Sexual reproduction mixes the genetic material of two individuals

Sexual reproduction is costly

Sex is maintained by the advantages of producing genetically varied offspring

Ecologists in the Field: Parasites and sex in freshwater snails

Individuals may have female function, male function, or both

The sex ratio of offspring is modified by natural selection

Ecologists in the Field: Effects of fishing on sex switching

Mating systems describe the pattern of pairing of males and females within a population

Sexual selection can result in sexual dimorphism

Chapter 9 Family, Society, and Evolution

Territoriality and dominance hierarchies organize social interactions within populations

Individuals gain advantages and suffer disadvantages from living in groups

Natural selection balances the costs and benefits of social behaviors

Kin selection favors altruistic behaviors toward related individuals

Ecologists in the Field: Are cooperative acts always acts of altruism?

Cooperation among individuals in extended families implies the operation of kin selection

Game theory analyses illustrate the difficulties for cooperation among unrelated individuals

Parents and offspring may come into conflict over levels of parental investment

Insect societies arise out of sibling altruism and parental dominance

Part III Populations

Chapter 10 The Distribution and Spatial Structure of Populations

Populations are limited to ecologically suitable habitats

Ecological niche modeling predicts the distributions of species

Global Change: Changing ocean temperatures and shifting fish distributions

The dispersion of individuals reflects habitat heterogeneity and social interactions

The spatial structure of populations parallels environmental variation

Three types of models describe the spatial structure of populations

Dispersal is essential to the integration of populations

Ecologists in the Field: Effects of habitat corridors on dispersal and distributions in an Atlantic coastal plain pine forest

Macroecology addresses patterns of range size and population density

Chapter 11 Population Growth and Regulation

Populations grow by multiplication rather than addition

Age structure influences population growth rate

A life table summarizes age-specific schedules of survival and fecundity

Ecologists in the Field: Building life tables for natural populations

The intrinsic rate of increase can be estimated from the life table

Population size is regulated by density-dependent factors

Data Analysis Module 2 Birth and Death Rates Influence Population Age Structure and Growth Rate

Chapter 12 Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Populations

Fluctuation is the rule for natural populations

Temporal variation affects the age structure of populations

Population cycles result from time delays in the response of populations to their own densities

Ecologists in the Field: Time delays and oscillations in blowfly populations

Metapopulations are discrete subpopulations linked by movements of individuals

Chance events may cause small populations to go extinct

Data Analysis Module 3 Stochastic Extinction with Variable Population Growth Rates

Chapter 13 Population Genetics

The ultimate source of genetic variation is mutation

Genetic markers can be used to study population processes

Genetic variation is maintained by mutation, migration, and environmental variation

The HardyûWeinberg law describes the frequencies of alleles and genotypes in ideal populations

Inbreeding reduces the frequency of heterozygotes in a population

Ecologists in the Field: Inbreeding depression and selective abortion in plants

Genetic drift in small populations causes loss of genetic variation

Population growth and decline leave different genetic traces

Loss of variation by genetic drift is balanced by mutation and migration

Selection in spatially variable environments can differentiate populations genetically

Part IV Species Interactions

Chapter 14 Species Interactions

All organisms are involved in consumerûresource interactions

The dynamics of consumerûresource interactions reflect mutual evolutionary responses

Ecologists in the Field: Predator avoidance and growth performance in frog larvae

Parasites maintain a delicate consumerûresource relationship with their hosts

Herbivory varies with the quality of plants as resources

Competition may be an indirect result of other types of interactions

Individuals of different species can collaborate in mutualistic interactions

Ecologists in the Field: Acacias house and feed the ants that protect them from herbivores

Chapter 15 Dynamics of ConsumerûResource Interactions

Consumers can limit resource populations

Many predator and prey populations increase and decrease in regular cycles

Ecologists in the Field: Huffaker's experiments on mite populations

Simple mathematical models can reproduce cyclic predatorûprey interaction

Pathogenûhost dynamics can be described by the S-I-R model

Ecologists in the Field: Testing a prediction of the LotkaûVolterra model

The chytrid fungus and the global decline of amphibians

The LotkaûVolterra model can be stabilized by predator satiation

A number of factors can reduce oscillations in predatorûprey models

Consumer-resource systems can have more than one stable state

Data Analysis Module 4 Maximum Sustainable Yield: Applying Basic Ecological Concepts to Fisheries Management

Chapter 16 Competition

Consumers compete for resources

Failure of species to coexist in laboratory cultures led to the competitive exclusion principle

The theory of competition and coexistence is an extension of logistic growth models

Asymmetric competition can occur when different factors limit the populations of competitors

Habitat productivity can influence competition between plant species

Competition may occur through direct interference

Consumers can influence the outcome of competition

Ecologists in the Field: Apparent competition between corals and algae mediated by microbes

Chapter 17 Evolution of Species Interactions

Adaptations in response to predation demonstrate selection by biological agents

Antagonists evolve in response to each other

Ecologists in the Field: Evolution in houseflies and their parasitoids

Coevolution in plant-pathogen systems reveals genotypeûgenotype interactions

Consumer and resource populations can achieve an evolutionary steady state

Competitive ability responds to selection

Ecologists in the Field: Back from the brink of extermination

Coevolution involves mutual evolutionary responses by interacting populations

Ecologists in the Field: A counterattack for every defense

Global Change: Invasive plant species and the role of herbivores

Part V Communities

Chapter 18 Community Structure

A biological community is an association of interacting populations

Measures of community structure include numbers of species and trophic levels

Feeding relationships organize communities in food webs

Food web structure influences the stability of communities

Ecologists in the Field: Does species diversity help communities bounce back from disturbance?

Communities can switch between alternative stable states

Ecologists in the Field: Mimicking the effects of ice scouring on the rocky coast of Maine

Trophic levels are influenced from above by predation and from below by production

Ecologists in the Field: A trophic cascade from fish to flowers

Chapter 19 Ecological Succession and Community Development

The concept of the sere includes all the stages of successional change

Ecologists in the Field: Gap size influences succession on marine hard substrata

Succession ensues as colonists alter environmental conditions

Ecologists in the Field: Plant life histories influence old-field succession

Succession becomes self-limiting as it approaches the climax

Chapter 20 Biodiversity

Variation in the relative abundance of species influences concepts of biodiversity

The number of species increases with the area sampled

Large-scale patterns of diversity reflect latitude, environmental heterogeneity, and productivity

Diversity has both regional and local components

Ecologists in the Field: Species sorting in wetland plant communities

Diversity can be understood in terms of niche relationships

Equilibrium theories of diversity balance factors that add and remove species

Explanations for high tree species richness in the tropics focus on forest dynamics

Data Analysis Module 5 Quantifying Biodiversity

Chapter 21 History, Biogeography, and Biodiversity

Life has unfolded over millions of years of geologic time

Continental drift influences the geography of evolution

Biogeographic regions reflect long-term evolutionary isolation

Climate change influences the distributions of organisms

Organisms in similar environments tend to converge in form and function

Closely related species show both convergence and divergence in ecological distributions

Species richness in similar environments often fails to converge between different regions

Ecologists in the Field: Why are there so many more temperate tree species in Asia?

Processes on large geographic and temporal scales influence biodiversity

Part VI Ecosystems

Chapter 22 Energy in the Ecosystem

Ecosystem function obeys thermodynamic principles

Primary production provides energy to the ecosystem

Many factors influence primary production

Primary production varies among ecosystems

Only 5%û20% of assimilated energy passes between trophic levels

Energy moves through ecosystems at different rates

Ecosystem energetics summarizes the movement of energy

Chapter 23 Pathways of Elements in Ecosystems

Energy transformations and element cycling are intimately linked

Ecosystems can be modeled as a series of linked compartments

Water provides a physical model of element cycling in ecosystems

The carbon cycle is closely tied to the flux of energy through the biosphere

Ecologists in the Field: What caused the rapid decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the Devonian?

Global Change: Rising carbon dioxide concentrations and the productivity of grasslands

Nitrogen assumes many oxidation states in its cycling through ecosystems

Ecologists in the Field: The fate of soil nitrate in a temperate forest

The phosphorus cycle is chemically uncomplicated

Sulfur exists in many oxidized and reduced forms

Microorganisms assume diverse roles in element cycles

Chapter 24 Nutrient Regeneration in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

Weathering makes nutrients available in terrestrial ecosystems

Nutrient regeneration in terrestrial ecosystems occurs in the soil

Mycorrhizal associations of fungi and plant roots promote nutrient uptake

Nutrient regeneration can follow many paths

Climate affects pathways and rates of nutrient regeneration

Ecologists in the Field: Will global warming speed the decomposition of organic matter in boreal forest soils?

In aquatic ecosystems, nutrients are regenerated slowly in deep water and sediments

Stratification hinders nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems

Oxygen depletion facilitates regeneration of nutrients in deep waters

Nutrient inputs control production in freshwater and shallow-water marine ecosystems

Nutrients limit production in the oceans

Ecologists in the Field: Does iron limit marine productivity?

Part VII Ecological Applications

Chapter 25 Landscape Ecology

Landscape mosaics reflect both natural and human influences

Landscape mosaics can be quantified using remote sensing, GPS, and GIS

Ecologists in the Field: Quantifying the habitat preferences of butterflies in Switzerland

Habitat fragmentation can affect species abundance and species richness

Habitat corridors and stepping stones can offset the effects of habitat fragmentation

Landscape ecology explicitly considers the quality of the matrix between habitat fragments

Different species perceive the landscape at different scales

Organisms depend on different landscape scales for different activities and at different life history stages

Chapter 26 Biodiversity, Extinction, and Conservation

Biological diversity has many components

Ecologists in the Field: Identifying biodiversity hotspots for conservation

The value of biodiversity arises from social, economic, and ecological considerations

Extinction is natural but its present rate is not

Human activities have accelerated the rate of extinction

Reserve designs for individual species must guarantee a self-sustaining population

Some critically endangered species have been rescued from the brink of extinction

Chapter 27 Economic Development and Global Ecology

Ecological processes hold the key to environmental policy

Human activities threaten local ecological processes

Toxins impose local and global environmental risks

Atmospheric pollution threatens the environment on a global scale

Human ecology is the ultimate challenge

Ecologists in the Field: Assessing the earth's carrying capacity for humankind.

ISBN:

9780716786979

0716786974