Download or read book Evolution of a Bird Population Following Establishment in a Novel Environment written by Pamela Jean Yeh and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 40 Years of Evolution written by Peter R. Grant and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-06 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important look at a groundbreaking forty-year study of Darwin's finches Renowned evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant have produced landmark studies of the Galápagos finches first made famous by Charles Darwin. In How and Why Species Multiply, they offered a complete evolutionary history of Darwin's finches since their origin almost three million years ago. Now, in their richly illustrated new book, 40 Years of Evolution, the authors turn their attention to events taking place on a contemporary scale. By continuously tracking finch populations over a period of four decades, they uncover the causes and consequences of significant events leading to evolutionary changes in species. The authors used a vast and unparalleled range of ecological, behavioral, and genetic data—including song recordings, DNA analyses, and feeding and breeding behavior—to measure changes in finch populations on the small island of Daphne Major in the Galápagos archipelago. They find that natural selection happens repeatedly, that finches hybridize and exchange genes rarely, and that they compete for scarce food in times of drought, with the remarkable result that the finch populations today differ significantly in average beak size and shape from those of forty years ago. The authors' most spectacular discovery is the initiation and establishment of a new lineage that now behaves as a new species, differing from others in size, song, and other characteristics. The authors emphasize the immeasurable value of continuous long-term studies of natural populations and of critical opportunities for detecting and understanding rare but significant events. By following the fates of finches for several generations, 40 Years of Evolution offers unparalleled insights into ecological and evolutionary changes in natural environments.
Download or read book Urban Bird Ecology and Conservation written by Christopher A. Lepczyk and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-10-26 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A publication of the Cooper Ornithological Society."
Download or read book Songbird Behavior and Conservation in the Anthropocene written by Darren S. Proppe and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Songbirds are often used as indicators of environmental health. From the canary in the coalmine, to shifts in demographics and population patterns, birds tell us when things are not well. More often than not, these observable trends are a result of adaptive behavior that has evolved over many generations. Understanding foundation concepts of songbird behavior, including the rate at which behavioral changes occur and the limits of plasticity, is a requirement for anyone interested in sustaining healthy songbird populations in the Anthropocene. Yet, our world is changing rapidly. Can songbirds adapt quickly enough to keep up? Observed declines in many species worldwide suggest that the answer is no. To avoid extinction for many species, our conservation strategies must be broader and more intentional. For example, are there ways to actively manage habitats so that vital cue-response systems are kept intact? Anthropogenic factors are also altering how birds select mates and habitats, sometimes in ways that decrease fitness. Can biologists actively manipulate behavior to mitigate these mismatches? The first goal of this book is to educate academics and managers alike about the foundational behaviors that drive songbird activity and demographic patterns. Topics such as migration, habitat selection, communication, etc., are explored by renown songbird biologist to bring the reader up to speed on the latest advancements in the field. However, each author is also versed in the principles of conservation. The second goal of this book is to explore the current issues that songbirds face in an increasingly anthropic world – and to discuss the role of behavior in the development of management solutions. By broadening our conservation toolkit, we can be more prepared to manage songbird populations and communities within the environmental challenges of the Anthropocene.
Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 804 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Biology of Urban Environments written by Philip James and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fourni par l'éditeur : "Provides a novel perspective on urban ecosystems, summarising our current understanding of the basic and applied aspects of these important and complex habitats, whilst focusing on environmental concerns in the context of global change."
Download or read book Avian Urban Ecology written by Diego Gil and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume adopts an evolutionary framework to explore how pre-existing differences in life history, behaviour, and physiology of birds may determine the course of their adaptation to urban habitats.
Download or read book The Beak of the Finch written by Jonathan Weiner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research of Darwin's discovery of evolution that "spark[s] not just the intellect, but the imagination" (Washington Post Book World). “Admirable and much-needed.... Weiner’s triumph is to reveal how evolution and science work, and to let them speak clearly for themselves.”—The New York Times Book Review On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this remarkable story, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.
Download or read book Urban Evolutionary Biology written by Marta Szulkin and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Evolutionary Biology fills an important knowledge gap on wild organismal evolution in the urban environment, whilst offering a novel exploration of the fast-growing new field of evolutionary research. The growing rate of urbanization and the maturation of urban study systems worldwide means interest in the urban environment as an agent of evolutionary change is rapidly increasing. We are presently witnessing the emergence of a new field of research in evolutionary biology. Despite its rapid global expansion, the urban environment has until now been a largely neglected study site among evolutionary biologists. With its conspicuously altered ecological dynamics, it stands in stark contrast to the natural environments traditionally used as cornerstones for evolutionary ecology research. Urbanization can offer a great range of new opportunities to test for rapid evolutionary processes as a consequence of human activity, both because of replicate contexts for hypothesis testing, but also because cities are characterized by an array of easily quantifiable environmental axes of variation and thus testable agents of selection. Thanks to a wide possible breadth of inference (in terms of taxa) that may be studied, and a great variety of analytical methods, urban evolution has the potential to stand at a fascinating multi-disciplinary crossroad, enriching the field of evolutionary biology with emergent yet incredibly potent new research themes where the urban habitat is key. Urban Evolutionary Biology is an advanced textbook suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers studying the genetics, evolutionary biology, and ecology of urban environments. It is also highly relevant to urban ecologists and urban wildlife practitioners.
Download or read book Understanding Urban Ecology written by Myrna H. P. Hall and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Few who live in cities understand that cities, too, are ecosystems, as beholden to the laws and principles of ecology as are natural ecosystems. Understanding Urban Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Systems Approach introduces students at the college undergraduate level, or those in advanced-standing college credit high school courses, to cities as ecosystems. For graduate students it provides an overview and rich literature base. Urban planners, educators, and decision makers can use this book to help in designing a more sustainable or “green” future. The authors use a systems approach to explore the complexity and interactions of different components of a city’s ecology with an emphasis on the energy and materials required to maintain such concentrated centers of human activity and consumption. The book is written by seventeen specialized contributors and includes ten accompanying detailed field exercises to promote hands-on experience, observation, and quantification of urban ecosystem structure and function.The chapters describe one by one the different subsystems of the urban environment, their individual components and functions, and the interactions among them that create the social-ecological environments in which we live. The book’s emphasis on social-ecological metabolism provides students with the knowledge and methods needed to evaluate proposed policies for urban sustainability in terms of ecosystem capacity, potential positive and negative feedbacks, the laws of thermo-dynamics, and socio-cultural perception and adaptability.
Download or read book Urban Ecosystems written by Frederick R. Adler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As humans have come to dominate the earth, the ideal of studying and teaching ecology in pristine ecosystems has become impossible to achieve. Our planet is now a mosaic of ecosystems ranging from the relatively undisturbed to the completely built, with the majority of people living in urban environments. This accessible introduction to the principles of urban ecology provides students with the tools they need to understand these increasingly important urban ecosystems. It builds upon the themes of habitat modification and resource use to demonstrate how multiple ecological processes interact in cities and how human activity initiates chains of unpredictable unintended ecological consequences. Broad principles are supported throughout by detailed examples from around the world and a comprehensive list of readings from the primary literature. Questions, exercises and laboratories at the end of each chapter encourage discussion, hands-on study, active learning, and engagement with the world outside the classroom window.
Download or read book Behavioural and Ecological Consequences of Urban Life in Birds written by Caroline Isaksson and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization is next to global warming the largest threat to biodiversity. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly evident that many bird species get locally extinct as a result of urban development. However, many bird species benefit from urbanization, especially through the abundance of human-provided resources, and increase in abundance and densities. These birds are intriguing to study in relation to its resilience and adaption to urban environments, but also in relation to its susceptibility and the potential costs of urban life. This Research Topic consisting of 30 articles (one review, two meta-analyzes and 27 original data papers) provides insights into species and population responses to urbanization through diverse lenses, including biogeography, community ecology, behaviour, life history evolution, and physiology.
Download or read book Biological Invasions in New Zealand written by Robert B. Allen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-07-04 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human colonization of New Zealand has dramatically altered the resident biota, introduced numerous alien organisms to these once remote islands, and exported local species to the world. This book reviews invasions, investigates what controls the success of invaders and studies the consequences for ecosystems both on land and offshore. The book tests current theories about the success of invaders and evaluates principles for effective management of biological invasions worldwide.
Download or read book Animal Behavior After Translocation into Novel Environments written by Oded Berger-Tal and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-05-09 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Avian Invasions written by Tim M. Blackburn and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-06-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Invasions summarizes 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 Invasions is aimed at professional avian biologists and ornithologists as well as graduate students of avian ecology, evolution and conservation. It will also appeal to a more general audience of invasion ecologists.
Download or read book Human Population written by Richard P. Cincotta and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume the dynamic patterns of human density and distribution are examined in relation to the viability of native species and the integrity of their habitats. Social, biological, and earth scientists describe their models, outline their conclusions from field studies, and review the contributions of other scientists whose work is essential to this field. The book starts with general theories and broad empirical relationships that help explain dramatic changes in the patterns of the occurrence of species, changes that have developed in parallel with human population growth, migration and settlement. In the following chapters specific biomes and ecosystems are highlighted as the context for human interactions with other species. A discussion of the key themes and findings covered rounds out the volume. All in all, the work presents our species, Homo sapiens, as what we truly have been and will likely remain—an influential, and often the most influential, constituent in nearly every major ecosystem on Earth.
Download or read book Index Medicus written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 2160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vols. for 1963- include as pt. 2 of the Jan. issue: Medical subject headings.
