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 Workshop on Branching Processes and Their Applications written by Miguel González and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the charms of mathematics is the contrast between its generality and its applicability to concrete, even everyday, problems. Branching processes are typical in this. Their niche of mathematics is the abstract pattern of reproduction, sets of individuals changing size and composition through their members reproducing; in other words, what Plato might have called the pure idea behind demography, population biology, cell kinetics, molecular replication, or nuclear ?ssion, had he known these scienti?c ?elds. Even in the performance of algorithms for sorting and classi?cation there is an inkling of the same pattern. In special cases, general properties of the abstract ideal then interact with the physical or biological or whatever properties at hand. But the population, or bran- ing, pattern is strong; it tends to dominate, and here lies the reason for the extreme usefulness of branching processes in diverse applications. Branching is a clean and beautiful mathematical pattern, with an intellectually challenging intrinsic structure, and it pervades the phenomena it underlies.

Download or read book Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation written by Russell Lande and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003 with total page 698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Demographic and environmental stochasticity -- 2. Extinction dynamics -- 3. Age structure -- 4. Spatial structure -- 5. Population viability analysis -- 6. Sustainable harvesting -- 7. Species diversity -- 8. Community dynamics.

Download or read book Adaptation in Stochastic Environments written by Jin Yoshimura and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classical theory of natural selection, as developed by Fisher, Haldane, and 'Wright, and their followers, is in a sense a statistical theory. By and large the classical theory assumes that the underlying environment in which evolution transpires is both constant and stable - the theory is in this sense deterministic. In reality, on the other hand, nature is almost always changing and unstable. We do not yet possess a complete theory of natural selection in stochastic environ ments. Perhaps it has been thought that such a theory is unimportant, or that it would be too difficult. Our own view is that the time is now ripe for the development of a probabilistic theory of natural selection. The present volume is an attempt to provide an elementary introduction to this probabilistic theory. Each author was asked to con tribute a simple, basic introduction to his or her specialty, including lively discussions and speculation. We hope that the book contributes further to the understanding of the roles of "Chance and Necessity" (Monod 1971) as integrated components of adaptation in nature.

Download or read book Population Growth and Extinction in Stochastic Environments written by Donald Edmund Strebel and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Environmental Stress Adaptation and Evolution written by Rudolf Bijlsma and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1997-09-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most organisms and populations have to cope with hostile environments, threatening their existence. Their ability to respond phenotypically and genetically to these challenges and to evolve adaptive mechanisms is, therefore, crucial. The contributions to this book aim at understanding, from a evolutionary perspective, the impact of stress on biological systems. Scientists, applying different approaches spanning from the molecular and the protein level to individuals, populations and ecosystems, explore how organisms adapt to extreme environments, how stress changes genetic structure and affects life histories, how organisms cope with thermal stress through acclimation, and how environmental and genetic stress induce fluctuating asymmetry, shape selection pressure and cause extinction of populations. Finally, it discusses the role of stress in evolutionary change, from stress induced mutations and selection to speciation and evolution at the geological time scale. The book contains reviews and novel scientific results on the subject. It will be of interest to both researchers and graduate students and may serve as a text for graduate courses.

Download or read book Population Dynamics in Variable Environments written by Shripad Tuljapurkar and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demography relates observable facts about individuals to the dynamics of populations. If the dynamics are linear and do not change over time, the classical theory of Lotka (1907) and Leslie (1945) is the central tool of demography. This book addresses the situation when the assumption of constancy is dropped. In many practical situations, a population will display unpredictable variation over time in its vital rates, which must then be described in statistical terms. Most of this book is concerned with the theory of populations which are subject to random temporal changes in their vital rates, although other kinds of variation (e. g. , cyclical) are also dealt with. The central questions are: how does temporal variation work its way into a population's future, and how does it affect our interpretation of a population's past. The results here are directed at demographers of humans and at popula tion biologists. The uneven mathematical level is dictated by the material, but the book should be accessible to readers interested in population the ory. (Readers looking for background or prerequisites will find much of it in Hal Caswell's Matrix population models: construction, analysis, and in terpretation (Sinauer 1989) ). This book is in essence a progress report and is deliberately brief; I hope that it is not mystifying. I have not attempted to be complete about either the history or the subject, although most sig nificant results and methods are presented.

Download or read book Branching Processes written by Patsy Haccou and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-19 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers the mathematical idea of branching processes, and tailors it for a biological audience.

Download or read book Science and the Endangered Species Act written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-10-13 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a far-reaching law that has sparked intense controversies over the use of public lands, the rights of property owners, and economic versus environmental benefits. In this volume a distinguished committee focuses on the science underlying the ESA and offers recommendations for making the act more effective. The committee provides an overview of what scientists know about extinctionâ€"and what this understanding means to implementation of the ESA. Habitatâ€"its destruction, conservation, and fundamental importance to the ESAâ€"is explored in detail. The book analyzes: Concepts of speciesâ€"how the term "species" arose and how it has been interpreted for purposes of the ESA. Conflicts between species when individual species are identified for protection, including several case studies. Assessment of extinction risk and decisions under the ESAâ€"how these decisions can be made more effectively. The book concludes with a look beyond the Endangered Species Act and suggests additional means of biological conservation and ways to reduce conflicts. It will be useful to policymakers, regulators, scientists, natural-resource managers, industry and environmental organizations, and those interested in biological conservation.

Download or read book Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2013-10-04 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward reviews the science that underpins the Bureau of Land Management's oversight of free-ranging horses and burros on federal public lands in the western United States, concluding that constructive changes could be implemented. The Wild Horse and Burro Program has not used scientifically rigorous methods to estimate the population sizes of horses and burros, to model the effects of management actions on the animals, or to assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands. Evidence suggests that horse populations are growing by 15 to 20 percent each year, a level that is unsustainable for maintaining healthy horse populations as well as healthy ecosystems. Promising fertility-control methods are available to help limit this population growth, however. In addition, science-based methods exist for improving population estimates, predicting the effects of management practices in order to maintain genetically diverse, healthy populations, and estimating the productivity of rangelands. Greater transparency in how science-based methods are used to inform management decisions may help increase public confidence in the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Download or read book Sensitivity Analysis Matrix Methods in Demography and Ecology written by Hal Caswell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book shows how to use sensitivity analysis in demography. It presents new methods for individuals, cohorts, and populations, with applications to humans, other animals, and plants. The analyses are based on matrix formulations of age-classified, stage-classified, and multistate population models. Methods are presented for linear and nonlinear, deterministic and stochastic, and time-invariant and time-varying cases. Readers will discover results on the sensitivity of statistics of longevity, life disparity, occupancy times, the net reproductive rate, and statistics of Markov chain models in demography. They will also see applications of sensitivity analysis to population growth rates, stable population structures, reproductive value, equilibria under immigration and nonlinearity, and population cycles. Individual stochasticity is a theme throughout, with a focus that goes beyond expected values to include variances in demographic outcomes. The calculations are easily and accurately implemented in matrix-oriented programming languages such as Matlab or R. Sensitivity analysis will help readers create models to predict the effect of future changes, to evaluate policy effects, and to identify possible evolutionary responses to the environment. Complete with many examples of the application, the book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in human demography and population biology. The material will also appeal to those in mathematical biology and applied mathematics.

Download or read book Population Viability in Plants written by Christy A. Brigham and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2003-03-24 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Persistence, threats, pathogens, herbivores, interactions, fragmented, landscape, extinction, habitat, disturbance, restoration.

Download or read book A Primer of Conservation Genetics written by Richard Frankham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-02-12 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This concise, entry level text provides an introduction to the importance of genetic studies in conservation and presents the essentials of the discipline in an easy-to-follow format, with main points and terms clearly highlighted. The authors assume only a basic knowledge of Mendelian genetics and simple statistics, making the book accessible to those with a limited background in these areas. Connections between conservation genetics and the wider field of conservation biology are interwoven throughout the book. Worked examples are provided throughout to help illustrate key equations and glossary and suggestions for further reading provide additional support for the reader. Many beautiful pen and ink portraits of endangered species are included to enhance the text. Written for short, introductory level courses in genetics, conservation genetics and conservation biology, this book will also be suitable for practising conservation biologists, zoo biologists and wildlife managers.

Download or read book Introduction to Conservation Genetics written by Richard Frankham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-03-14 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genetic diversity, biodiversity, population management.

Download or read book Macroecology Concepts and Consequences written by British Ecological Society. Symposium and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-08 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Macroecology: Concepts and Consequences brings together for the first time major researchers in the field to present overviews of current thinking about the form and determinants of macroecological patterns. Each section presents different viewpoints on the answer to a key question in macroecology, such as why are most species rare, why are most species small-bodied, and why are most species restricted in their distribution?

Download or read book Modelling Fluctuating Populations written by R. M. Nisbet and published by . This book was released on 2004-02-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the foreword to this reprinting:

Download or read book Minimum Animal Populations written by Hermann Remmert and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: H. REMMERT Small populations are very often discussed, but there seems to be no general overview touching all the self-evident but norma,lly simply neglected problems connected with small populations. First, there are many very different types of organisms, and as every biologist should know, the problems of small populations are very different in different types of organisms. 1. In vascular plants the problems are different from the situation in birds and mammals; in marine benthic animals or in parasites such as tapeworms the problems are different again, and in seasonal planktonic animals or insects they are different from those in biotopes under constant conditions. In tapeworms or in vascular plants, an adult organism seems to be comparable to a population of mammals or birds because its offspring can be so diverse and plentiful. 2. There are small populations which explode and break down to a small population again, and then explode and break down again.