Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation
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.
Preface
Chapter 1:
Ecosystem Conservation: The Need for Ecological Science 1
Chapter 2:
The Science of Ecology 8
What is Ecology? 9
Resolving Ecological Complexity 10
Life as a Game 18
Ecological Science: Gaining Reliable Knowledge about Ecosystems. 24
Chapter 3:
Climate-Template for Global Biodiversity 33
The Physics Underlying Life on Earth 33
Ecosystem Types 27
Coping With with Climate 37
Climate-Space 41
Effects of Global Climate Change 43
Chapter 4:
Ecological Limits and the Size of Populations 54
Simple Population Growth 55v
Ecological Balance and Carrying Capacity 58
Competitors and Predators 62
Weather 64
Carrying Capacity and Population Overabundance 66
Chapter 5:
Viability of Threatened Species 3
Life-Cycles and Population Dynamics 76
Modeling Age-Structured Population Dynamics 78
Viability of Loggerhead Sea Turtles. 84
Chapter 6:
Biodiversity and Habitat Fragmentation 88
Diversity Indices 89
Habitat Fragmentation and the Species-Area Relationship 92
Habitat Fragmentation and Population and Community Processes 96
Chapter 7:
The Web of Life: Connections in Space and Time 102
Ecosystems in Time 104
Ecosystems in Space: Linkages Across Geographic Boundaries 107
Chapter 8:
Ecosystem Services of Biodiversity 115
Diversity Begets Ecosystem Stability 118
Diversity-Productivity Relations 123
Crop Pollination 124
Pest Control 126
Invasion Resistance 127
Chapter 9:
Protecting Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Function 131
Conservation Tools 132
Dynamic Landscapes 138
Global Climate Change and Reshuffling of Faunas 141
Chapter 10:
The Good of a Species: Toward a Science-Based
Ecosystem Conservation Ethic 145
Tinkering with Economies 146
Ecological Science, Uncertainty, and Precaution 151
Policy and Management as a Scientific Enterprise 156
Questions for Discussion 162
References
Further Reading
Glossary
About the Author
Index
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