Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation

✍ Scribed by Oswald J. Schmitz

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 179
• Series: Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies Series
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Meeting today’s environmental challenges requires a new way of thinking about the intricate dependencies between humans and nature. Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation provides students and other readers with a basic understanding of the fundamental principles of ecological science and their applications, offering an essential overview of the way ecology can be used to devise strategies to conserve the health and functioning of ecosystems.

 

The book begins by exploring the need for ecological science in understanding current environmental issues and briefly discussing what ecology is and isn’t. Subsequent chapters address critical issues in conservation and show how ecological science can be applied to them. The book explores questions such as:

 

• What is the role of ecological science in decision making? • What factors govern the assembly of ecosystems and determine their response to various stressors? • How does Earth’s climate system function and determine the distribution of life on Earth? • What factors control the size of populations? • How does fragmentation of the landscape affect the persistence of species on the landscape? • How does biological diversity influence ecosystem processes?

 

The book closes with a final chapter that addresses the need not only to understand ecological science, but to put that science into an ecosystem conservation ethics perspective.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover Page......Page 1
About Island Press......Page 3
Title Page......Page 6
ISBN 1597260487......Page 7
Table of Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Ch. 1: Ecosystem Conservation: The Need for Ecological Science......Page 12
Ch. 2: The Science of Ecology......Page 17
Resolving Ecological Complexity......Page 18
Life as a Game......Page 26
Ecological Science: Gaining Reliable Knowledge about Ecosystems......Page 31
The Physics Underlying Life on Earth......Page 37
Ecosystem Types......Page 39
Coping with Climate......Page 40
Climate-Space......Page 46
Effects of Global Climate Change......Page 47
Ch. 4: Ecological Limits and the Size of Populations......Page 56
Simple Population Growth......Page 57
Ecological Balance and Carrying Capacity......Page 60
Competitors and Predators......Page 65
Weather......Page 66
Carrying Capacity and Population Overabundance......Page 68
Ch. 5: Viability of Threatened Species......Page 74
Life Cycles and Population Dynamics......Page 77
Modeling Age-Structured Population Dynamics......Page 79
Viability of Loggerhead Sea Turtles......Page 86
Ch. 6: Biodiversity and Habitat Fragmentation......Page 90
Diversity Indices......Page 91
Habitat Fragmentation and the Species-Area Relationship......Page 94
Habitat Fragmentation and the Population and Community Processes......Page 99
Ch. 7: The Web of Life: Connections in Space and Time......Page 103
Ecosystems in Time......Page 104
Ecosystems in Space: Linkages across Geographic Boundaries......Page 107
Ch. 8: Ecosystem Services of Biodiversity......Page 113
Diversity Begets Ecosystem Stability......Page 117
Diversity-Productivity Relations......Page 121
Crop Pollination......Page 122
Pest Control......Page 124
Invasion Resistance......Page 125
Ch. 9: Protecting Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Function......Page 126
Conservation Tools......Page 127
Dynamic Landscapes......Page 132
Global Climate Change and Reshuffling of Faunas......Page 135
Ch. 10: The Good of a Species: Toward a Science-Based Ecosystem Conservation Ethic......Page 137
Tinkering within Economics......Page 138
Ecological Science, Uncertainty, and Precaution......Page 141
Policy and Management as a Scientific Enterprise......Page 146
Questions for Discussion......Page 150
References......Page 154
Further Reading......Page 160
Glossary......Page 164
About the Author......Page 168
Index......Page 170