Avian Invasions The Ecology and Evolution of Exotic Birds [Hardcover]

Biological invaders represent one of the primary threats to the maintenance of global biodiversity, human health, and the success of human economic enterprises. The continuing globalization of our society ensures that the need to understand the process of biological invasion will only increase in the future. There is also a growing recognition that the study of biological invaders provides a unique insight into basic questions in ecology and evolution.

The study of exotic birds has had a particularly long history and has come to represent a fascinating intersection between the study of biological invasions, avian conservation biology, and basic principles of ecology and evolution.Avian Invasionssummarizes and synthesizes this unique historical record and unravels the insights that the study of exotic birds brings to all three of these research strands. It includes chapters on the well-known contributions of exotic bird study to ecological science, and on the post-establishment evolution of introduced bird populations. The result is the most comprehensive picture yet of the invasion process.

Avian Invasionsis aimed at professional avian biologists and ornithologists as well as graduate students of avian ecology, evolution and conservation. It also appeals to a more general audience of invasion ecologists.

Preface
1. Introduction to the Study of Exotic Birds
2. Transport and Introduction
3. The Role of Contingency in Establishment Success
4. The Role of Species Traits in Establishment Success
5. The Role of Location in Establishment Success
6. Geographic Range Expansion of Exotic Birds
7. The Ecology of Exotic Birds in Novel Locations
8. The Genetics of Exotic Bird Introductions
9. The Evolution of Exotic Birds
10. Lessons from Exotic Birds
References
Index

This is an extraordinary book on ecology and evolutionary biology of a special set of birds. Any biologist whose research deals evelƒf