Download or read book Modeling Extinction written by Mark E. J. Newman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last decade or so, scientists have started to examine a new approach to the patterns of evolution and extinction in the fossil record. This approach may be called "statistical paleontology," since it looks at large-scale patterns in the record and attempts to understand and model their average statistical features, rather than their detailed structure. This book, developed after a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute on extinction modeling, comments critically on the various modeling approaches.
Download or read book Extinction and Quasi Stationarity in the Stochastic Logistic SIS Model written by Ingemar Nåsell and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-07-06 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents explicit approximations of the quasi-stationary distribution and of the expected time to extinction from the state one and from quasi-stationarity for the stochastic logistic SIS model. The approximations are derived separately in three different parameter regions, and then combined into a uniform approximation across all three regions. Subsequently, the results are used to derive thresholds as functions of the population size N.
Download or read book Conservation Biology written by Peggy L. Fiedler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: • • • John Harper • • • Nature conservation has changed from an idealistic philosophy to a serious technology. Ecology, the science that underpins the technol ogy of conservation, is still too immature to provide all the wisdom that it must. It is arguable that the desire to conserve nature will in itself force the discipline of ecology to identify fundamental prob lems in its scientific goals and methods. In return, ecologists may be able to offer some insights that make conservation more practicable (Harper 1987). The idea that nature (species or communities) is worth preserv ing rests on several fundamental arguments, particularly the argu ment of nostalgia and the argument of human benefit and need. Nostalgia, of course, is a powerful emotion. With some notable ex ceptions, there is usually a feeling of dismay at a change in the sta tus quo, whether it be the loss of a place in the country for walking or rambling, the loss of a painting or architectural monument, or that one will never again have the chance to see a particular species of bird or plant.
Download or read book Saving a Million Species written by Lee Hannah and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2012-06-22 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The research paper "Extinction Risk from Climate Change" published in the journal Nature in January 2004 created front-page headlines around the world. The notion that climate change could drive more than a million species to extinction captured both the popular imagination and the attention of policy-makers, and provoked an unprecedented round of scientific critique. Saving a Million Species reconsiders the central question of that paper: How many species may perish as a result of climate change and associated threats? Leaders from a range of disciplines synthesize the literature, refine the original estimates, and elaborate the conservation and policy implications. The book: examines the initial extinction risk estimates of the original paper, subsequent critiques, and the media and policy impact of this unique study presents evidence of extinctions from climate change from different time frames in the past explores extinctions documented in the contemporary record sets forth new risk estimates for future climate change considers the conservation and policy implications of the estimates. Saving a Million Species offers a clear explanation of the science behind the headline-grabbing estimates for conservationists, researchers, teachers, students, and policy-makers. It is a critical resource for helping those working to conserve biodiversity take on the rapidly advancing and evolving global stressor of climate change-the most important issue in conservation biology today, and the one for which we are least prepared.
Download or read book Stochastic Population and Epidemic Models written by Linda J. S. Allen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph provides a summary of the basic theory of branching processes for single-type and multi-type processes. Classic examples of population and epidemic models illustrate the probability of population or epidemic extinction obtained from the theory of branching processes. The first chapter develops the branching process theory, while in the second chapter two applications to population and epidemic processes of single-type branching process theory are explored. The last two chapters present multi-type branching process applications to epidemic models, and then continuous-time and continuous-state branching processes with applications. In addition, several MATLAB programs for simulating stochastic sample paths are provided in an Appendix. These notes originated as part of a lecture series on Stochastics in Biological Systems at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute in Ohio, USA. Professor Linda Allen is a Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University, USA.
Download or read book Spatial Ecology and Conservation Modeling written by Robert Fletcher and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-15 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a foundation for modern applied ecology. Much of current ecology research and conservation addresses problems across landscapes and regions, focusing on spatial patterns and processes. This book is aimed at teaching fundamental concepts and focuses on learning-by-doing through the use of examples with the software R. It is intended to provide an entry-level, easily accessible foundation for students and practitioners interested in spatial ecology and conservation.
Download or read book Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment written by Robert A. Pastorok and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expanding the risk assessment toolbox, this book provides a comprehensive and practical evaluation of specific ecological models for potential use in risk assessment. Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment: Chemical Effects on Populations, Ecosystems, and Landscapes goes beyond current risk assessment practices for toxic chemicals as applied to individual-organism endpoints to describe ecological effects models useful at the population, ecosystem, and landscape levels. The authors demonstrate the utility of a set of ecological effects models, eventually improving the ecological relevance of risk assessments and making data collection more cost effective.
Download or read book Ecological Modeling for Resource Management written by Virginia H. Dale and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will serve as a readable introduction to ecological modeling for people involved in resource management and will also review models for specific applications of interest to more experienced modelers. Successful uses of ecological models as well as discussions of important issues in modeling are addressed. The authors of this volume hope to close the gap between the state of the art in ecological modeling and the state of the practice in the use of models in management decision making.
Download or read book Extinction and Quasi Stationarity in the Stochastic Logistic SIS Model written by Ingemar Nåsell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-07-06 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents explicit approximations of the quasi-stationary distribution and of the expected time to extinction from the state one and from quasi-stationarity for the stochastic logistic SIS model. The approximations are derived separately in three different parameter regions, and then combined into a uniform approximation across all three regions. Subsequently, the results are used to derive thresholds as functions of the population size N.
Download or read book The Sixth Extinction written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Over the last half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around the cataclysm is us. In this book the author tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. She provides a moving account of the disappearances of various species occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up to Lyell and Darwin, and through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human". -- Back cover.
Download or read book American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene written by Gary Haynes and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-23 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumés of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals.
Download or read book Modeling Biological Systems written by James W. Haefner and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended as a text for a first course on creating and analyzing computer simulation models of biological systems. The expected audience for this book are students wishing to use dynamic models to interpret real data mueh as they would use standard statistical techniques. It is meant to provide both the essential principles as well as the details and equa tions applicable to a few particular systems and subdisciplines. Biological systems, however, encompass a vast, diverse array of topics and problems. This book discusses only a select number of these that I have found to be useful and interesting to biologists just beginning their appreciation of computer simulation. The examples chosen span classical mathematical models of well-studied systems to state-of-the-art topics such as cellular automata and artificial life. I have stressed the relationship between the models and the biology over mathematical analysis in order to give the reader a sense that mathematical models really are useful to biologists. In this light, I have sought examples that address fundamental and, I think, interesting biological questions. Almost all of the models are directly COIIl pared to quantitative data to provide at least a partial demonstration that some biological models can accurately predict.
Download or read book A Model for Evolution and Extinction written by Bruce W. Roberts and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extinctions in the History of Life written by Paul D. Taylor and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-11 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extinction is the ultimate fate of all biological species - over 99 percent of the species that have ever inhabited the Earth are now extinct. The long fossil record of life provides scientists with crucial information about when species became extinct, which species were most vulnerable to extinction, and what processes may have brought about extinctions in the geological past. Key aspects of extinctions in the history of life are here reviewed by six leading palaeontologists, providing a source text for geology and biology undergraduates as well as more advanced scholars. Topical issues such as the causes of mass extinctions and how animal and plant life has recovered from these cataclysmic events that have shaped biological evolution are dealt with. This helps us to view the biodiversity crisis in a broader context, and shows how large-scale extinctions have had profound and long-lasting effects on the Earth's biosphere.
Download or read book Progress in Scale Modeling written by Kozo Saito and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-08-20 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scale modeling can play an important role in R&D. When engineers receive some ideas in new product development, they can test how the new design looks by bui- ing scale models and they can get an actual feeling with the prototype through their imagination. Professor Emori often said: “When children play with a toy airplane, their mind is wondering about the prototype airplane which they haven’t ridden. ” Children can use the scale model airplane as a means to enter into an imagi- tive world of wonder by testing in their own way how the actual airplane might function, how the actual airplane can maneuver aerodynamically, what might be the actual sound of a jet engine, how to safely land the actual airplane, and so on. This imagination that scale models can provide for children will help them later develop professional intuition. Physical scale models can never be entirely succe- fully replaced by computer screens where virtual models are displayed and fancy functions are demonstrated. Not only children but also adults can learn things by actually touching things only offered by physical models, helping all of us develop imagination and feeling eventually leading toward Kufu. Einstein’s famous “thought experiments [11],” which helped him to restructure modern physics may possibly and effectively be taught by letting researchers play with scale models!? References 1. I. Emori, K. Saito, and K. Sekimoto, Mokei Jikken no Riron to Ouyou (Scale Models in Engineering: Its Theory and Application), Gihodo, Tokyo, Third Edition, 2000.
Download or read book An Introduction to Stochastic Modeling written by Mark Pinsky and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2010-11-18 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Serving as the foundation for a one-semester course in stochastic processes for students familiar with elementary probability theory and calculus, Introduction to Stochastic Modeling, Fourth Edition, bridges the gap between basic probability and an intermediate level course in stochastic processes. The objectives of the text are to introduce students to the standard concepts and methods of stochastic modeling, to illustrate the rich diversity of applications of stochastic processes in the applied sciences, and to provide exercises in the application of simple stochastic analysis to realistic problems. New to this edition: Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text, including more biological applications Plentiful, completely updated problems Completely updated and reorganized end-of-chapter exercise sets, 250 exercises with answers New chapters of stochastic differential equations and Brownian motion and related processes Additional sections on Martingale and Poisson process Realistic applications from a variety of disciplines integrated throughout the text Extensive end of chapter exercises sets, 250 with answers Chapter 1-9 of the new edition are identical to the previous edition New! Chapter 10 - Random Evolutions New! Chapter 11- Characteristic functions and Their Applications
Download or read book Populations in a Seasonal Environment written by Stephen D. Fretwell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1972-07-21 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most organisms live in a seasonal environment. During their life cycles, some species face seasons of cold and heat, aridity and abundant rainfall, migration and stable residence, breeding and nonbreeding. Populations grow and decline as supplies of materials essential to their survival wax and wane. Such qualitative truths as these flow obviously from field observations. In this original monograph, Stephen Fretwell analyzes the highly complex interaction between a population and a regularly varying environment in an attempt to define and measure seasonality as a critical parameter in the general theory of population regulation. Concerned primarily with the size and the habitat distribution of populations, Professor Fretwell develops simple models that, when applied to specific populations, usually of birds, demonstrate the effect of seasonal variations on the regulation of populations. He maintains that seasonality, as a concept, is essential to a full understanding of environmental interaction. During the course of his exposition, the author offers several new hypotheses, including theories affecting the breeding, numbers, distribution, and diversity of wintering birds, and a theory affecting the body size of sparrows.
