Ebook: The Loom of Life: Unravelling Ecosystems
Author: Menno Schilthuizen (auth.)
- Tags: Biodiversity, Evolutionary Biology, Ecosystems, Theoretical Ecology/Statistics
- Year: 2009
- Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
How can thousands of tree species coexist in a patch of tropical rainforest where there seem to be just a handful of niches? Why does biodiversity boom at the equator and plummet at the poles? Questions like these are central to modern ecology, where the gap between the familiar "niche" and the staggering (but sharply decreasing) global biodiversity seems to become ever wider. This book helps students and the general reader to bridge that gap, by tip-toeing from the smallest to the largest ecosystems.
How can thousands of tree species coexist in a patch of tropical rainforest where there seem to be just a handful of niches? Why does biodiversity boom at the equator and plummet at the poles? Questions like these are central to modern ecology, where the gap between the familiar "niche" and the staggering (but sharply decreasing) global biodiversity seems to become ever wider. This book helps students and the general reader to bridge that gap, by tip-toeing from the smallest to the largest ecosystems.
How can thousands of tree species coexist in a patch of tropical rainforest where there seem to be just a handful of niches? Why does biodiversity boom at the equator and plummet at the poles? Questions like these are central to modern ecology, where the gap between the familiar "niche" and the staggering (but sharply decreasing) global biodiversity seems to become ever wider. This book helps students and the general reader to bridge that gap, by tip-toeing from the smallest to the largest ecosystems.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Life in Little Worlds....Pages 1-10
Leaky Buckets....Pages 11-23
Hidden Riches....Pages 25-39
No Niche Like Home....Pages 41-53
Neutral by Nature....Pages 55-66
In Splendid Isolation....Pages 67-79
Ecology of Wildcards....Pages 81-95
The Loom Of Life....Pages 97-113
The Age of Atropos....Pages 115-134
Back Matter....Pages 135-167
How can thousands of tree species coexist in a patch of tropical rainforest where there seem to be just a handful of niches? Why does biodiversity boom at the equator and plummet at the poles? Questions like these are central to modern ecology, where the gap between the familiar "niche" and the staggering (but sharply decreasing) global biodiversity seems to become ever wider. This book helps students and the general reader to bridge that gap, by tip-toeing from the smallest to the largest ecosystems.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Life in Little Worlds....Pages 1-10
Leaky Buckets....Pages 11-23
Hidden Riches....Pages 25-39
No Niche Like Home....Pages 41-53
Neutral by Nature....Pages 55-66
In Splendid Isolation....Pages 67-79
Ecology of Wildcards....Pages 81-95
The Loom Of Life....Pages 97-113
The Age of Atropos....Pages 115-134
Back Matter....Pages 135-167
....