Biodiversity An Ecological Perspective [Paperback]

Despite acknowledgment that loss of living diversity is an international biological crisis, the ecological causes and consequences of extinction have not yet been widely addressed. In honor of Edward O. Wilson, winner of the 1993 International Prize for Biology, an international group of distinguished biologists bring ecological, evolutionary, and management perspectives to the issue of biodiversity. The roles of ecosystem processes, community structure and population dynamics are considered in this book. The goal, as Wilson writes in his introduction, is to assemble concepts that unite the disciplines of systematics and ecology, and in so doing to create a sound scientific basis for the future management of biodiversity. Despite acknowledgment that loss of living diversity is an international biological crisis, the ecological causes and consequences of extinction have not yet been widely addressed. In honor of Edward O. Wilson, winner of the 1993 International Prize for Biology, an international group of distinguished biologists bring ecological, evolutionary, and management perspectives to the issue of biodiversity. The roles of ecosystem processes, community structure and population dynamics are considered in this book. The goal, as Wilson writes in his introduction, is to assemble concepts that unite the disciplines of systematics and ecology, and in so doing to create a sound scientific basis for the future management of biodiversity. I. Ecological Causes of Biodiversity.- 1. Biogeographic Patterns of Avian Diversity in Australia.- 2. The Role of Architecture in Enhancing Plant Species Diversity.- 3. Species Coexistence and Abundance: Patterns and Processes.- II. Evolutionary Causes of Biodiversity.- 4. Extinction and the Evolutionary Process.- 5. Diversity and Evolution of Symbiotic Interactions.- 6. Global Diversification of Termites Driven by the Evolution of Symbiosis and Sociality.- III. Biodiversity and Ecological Complexity.- 7. Plant-Mediated Interactl¯