Ecological Versatility and Community Ecology [Paperback]

A comprehensive analysis of ecological specialisation and generalisation in natural communities, first published in 1995.There is wide variation in the amount of ecological versatility which different species show - that is, in the range of resources or habitats they are able to make use of. Species with highly specialized requirements are very vulnerable to extinction as a result of habitat or resource loss. This book is about specialization and generalization, in the use of both resources and habitat. The author uses ideas from the wide range of ecological disciplines to provide the first comprehensive overview of research into ecological versatility.There is wide variation in the amount of ecological versatility which different species show - that is, in the range of resources or habitats they are able to make use of. Species with highly specialized requirements are very vulnerable to extinction as a result of habitat or resource loss. This book is about specialization and generalization, in the use of both resources and habitat. The author uses ideas from the wide range of ecological disciplines to provide the first comprehensive overview of research into ecological versatility.There are mounting concerns that the management of our natural global heritage is failing to arrest the rapid extinction of enormous numbers of specialized species, especially in the tropics. This book is about specialization and generalization in the use of resources and habitats. The author employs a broad ecological perspective to address three main questions: how ecologists study variation in resource and habitat use and what we learn from these studies; how well existing theory accounts for observations and what the common threads among disciplines are; and finally, what the relationship between resource and habitat use is. This is the first book to provide a comprehensive analysis of ecological versatility and as such, will be of great interest to students and researchers in ecolol#&