You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The boreal forest is one of the world's great ecosystems, stretching across North America and Eurasia in an unbroken band and containing about 25% of the world's closed canopy forests. The Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Project was a 10-year study by nine of Canada's leading ecologists to unravel the impact of the snowshoe hare cycle on the plants and the other vertebrate species in the boreal forest. In much of the boreal forest, the snowshoe hare acts as a keystone herbivore, fluctuating in 9-10 year cycles, and dragging along secondary cycles in predators such as lynx and great-horned owls. By manipulating the ecosystem on a large scale from the bottom via fertilizer additions and from th...
This book provides an analysis of frequently used research techniques in animal ecology, identifying their limitations and misuses, as well as possible solutions to avoid such pitfalls. The contributors provide an overarching account of central theoretical and methodological controversies. The editors have forged comprehensive presentations of key topics in animal ecology, such as territory and home range estimates, habitation evaluation, population viability analysis, GIS mapping, and measuring the dynamics of societies.
Long-term monitoring programs are fundamental to understanding the natural environment and effectively tackling major environmental problems. Yet they are often done very poorly and ineffectively. Effective Ecological Monitoring describes what makes successful and unsuccessful long-term monitoring programs. Short and to the point, it illustrates key aspects with case studies and examples. It is based on the collective experience of running long-term research and monitoring programs of the two authors – experience which spans more than 70 years. The book first outlines why long-term monitoring is important, then discusses why long-term monitoring programs often fail. The authors then highlight what makes good and effective monitoring. These good and bad aspects of long-term monitoring programs are further illustrated in the fourth chapter of the book. The final chapter sums up the future of long-term monitoring programs and how to make them better, more effective and better targeted.
This coherent text translates the methods of statisticians into "ecological English" so that students may readily apply these methods to the real world. Ecological Methodology, Second Edition provides a balance of material on animal and plant populations. It teaches students of ecology how to design the most efficient tests in order to obtain maximum precision with minimal work. The first part of the text focuses on biological and technical issues in statistical methodology. Students learn about advances that have been made in designing better sampling devices, along with the techniques and equipment used for sampling. The second part deals with creating solid statistical design, and presents all methods that are well-known to statisticians in a language and context that students will easily understand.
description not available right now.
This book provides a contemporary view of the major issues facing ecologists and outlines some of the strengths and weaknesses of the current ecological framework and its utility in managing biological systems. It includes contributions from world experts, and looks at important themes including theoretical and experimental population ecology, the conservation of endangered species, the management of pests and the sustainable management of resources. The chapters deal with a wide range of organisms including plants, pathogens, insects, molluscs, birds, marine and terrestrial mammals. New technologies and approaches are also covered.
This best-selling majors ecology book continues to present ecology as a series of problems for readers to critically analyze. No other text presents analytical, quantitative, and statistical ecological information in an equally accessible style. Reflecting the way ecologists actually practice, the book emphasizes the role of experiments in testing ecological ideas and discusses many contemporary and controversial problems related to distribution and abundance. Throughout the book, Krebs thoroughly explains the application of mathematical concepts in ecology while reinforcing these concepts with research references, examples, and interesting end-of-chapter review questions. Thoroughly updated...