Resource Competition And Community Structure

Author : David Tilman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691209650
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Resource Competition and Community Structure. (MPB-17), Volume 17 written by David Tilman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the central questions of ecology is why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals. Here David Tilman presents a theory of how organisms compete for resources and the way their competition promotes diversity. Developing Hutchinson's suggestion that the main cause of diversity is the feeding relations of species, this book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities. In a detailed analysis of the Park Grass Experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, the author demonstrates that the dramatic results of these 120 years of experimentation are consistent with his theory, as are observations in many other natural communities. The consumer-resource approach of this book is applicable to both animal and plant communities, but the majority of Professor Tilman's discussion concentrates on the structure of plant communities. All theoretical arguments are developed graphically, and formal mathematics is kept to a minimum. The final chapters of the book provide some testable speculations about resources and animal communities and explore such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.

Author : David Tilman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691083025
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Resource Competition and Community Structure written by David Tilman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1982-08-21 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the central questions of ecology is why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals. Here David Tilman presents a theory of how organisms compete for resources and the way their competition promotes diversity. Developing Hutchinson's suggestion that the main cause of diversity is the feeding relations of species, this book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities. In a detailed analysis of the Park Grass Experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, the author demonstrates that the dramatic results of these 120 years of experimentation are consistent with his theory, as are observations in many other natural communities. The consumer-resource approach of this book is applicable to both animal and plant communities, but the majority of Professor Tilman's discussion concentrates on the structure of plant communities. All theoretical arguments are developed graphically, and formal mathematics is kept to a minimum. The final chapters of the book provide some testable speculations about resources and animal communities and explore such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.

Author : Martin L. Cody
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691209332
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competition and the Structure of Bird Communities. (MPB-7), Volume 7 written by Martin L. Cody and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Cody's monograph emphasizes the role of competition at levels above single species populations, and describes how competition, by way of the niche concept, determines the structure of communities. Communities may be understood in terms of resource gradients, or niche dimensions, along which species become segregated through competitive interactions. Most communities appear to exist in three or four such dimensions. The first three chapters describe the resource gradients (habitat types, foraging sites, food types), show what factors restrict species to certain parts of the resource gradients and so determine niche breadths, and illustrate the important role of resource predictability in niche overlap between species for resources they share. Most examples are drawn from eleven North and South American bird communities, although the concepts and methodology are far more general. Next, the optimality of community structure is tested through parallel and convergent evolution on different continents with similar climates and habitats, and the direct influence of competitors on resource use is investigated by comparisons of species--poor island communities to species-rich mainland ones. Finally, the author discusses those sorts of environments in which the evolution of one species--one resource set is not achieved, and where alternative schemes of resource allocation, often involving several species that act ecologically as one, must be followed.

Author : Ulrich Sommer
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642561667
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competition and Coexistence written by Ulrich Sommer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question "Why are there so many species?" has puzzled ecologist for a long time. Initially, an academic question, it has gained practical interest by the recent awareness of global biodiversity loss. Species diversity in local ecosystems has always been discussed in relation to the problem of competi tive exclusion and the apparent contradiction between the competitive exclu sion principle and the overwhelming richness of species found in nature. Competition as a mechanism structuring ecological communities has never been uncontroversial. Not only its importance but even its existence have been debated. On the one extreme, some ecologists have taken competi tion for granted and have used it as an explanation by default if the distribu tion of a species was more restricted than could be explained by physiology and dispersal history. For decades, competition has been a core mechanism behind popular concepts like ecological niche, succession, limiting similarity, and character displacement, among others. For some, competition has almost become synonymous with the Darwinian "struggle for existence", although simple plausibility should tell us that organisms have to struggle against much more than competitors, e.g. predators, parasites, pathogens, and envi ronmental harshness.

Author : R.J. Putman
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9780412612404
Total Pages : 164 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competition and Resource Partitioning in Temperate Ungulate Assemblies written by R.J. Putman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1996-10-31 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rory Putman addresses the question of how, in many temporate ecosystems, diverse and species-rich assemblies of ungulates manage to co-exist despite often quite extensive overlap in ecological requirements. Putman explores the potential for competition, competition tolerance and even positive facilitation amongst the members of such guilds of ungulates. As a central worked example, the author employs data resulting from over 20 years of personal research into the ecology and population dynamics of various large herbivores of the New Forest in Southern England. With these, he applies formal protocols in resource use, evidence for resource limitation and evidence for interaction between species in changing population size over the years.

Author : David Tilman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691084893
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities written by David Tilman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1988-03-21 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new approach to understanding the dynamics occurring among plant populations at the community level, Tilman sets forth an exciting hypothesis to aid in explaining the factors operative in vegetation change. He emphasizes nutrient allocation, especially nitrogen and light, as a critical factor in addition to others in accounting for what is referred to as "succession" by most ecologists. Tilman initially presents some basic concepts--plant competition, resource allocation, and succession--followed by his extensive old field experiments on the Minnesota sand plain. These add support to his hypothesis concerning the role of nutrient allocation as a factor involved in vegetation change. Illustrations, including tables and figures, greatly enhance the text. A most readable book, and students of vegetation science will find it a welcome addition to their libraries. It also should find its way to all academic libraries since it is aimed primarily at professional plant ecologists. W.A. Niering Connecticut College--Choice Reviews.

Author : Paul Giller
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9400955588
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Community Structure and the Niche written by Paul Giller and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past two decades, there has been a gradual change of emphasis in ecological studies directed at unravelling the complexity of natural communities. Initially, the population approach was used, where interest lay in the way individual populations change and in the identification of factors af fecting these changes. A good understanding of the dynamics of single populations is now emerging, but this has not been a very fruitful approach at the community level. In the natural world, few species can be treated as isolated populations, as most single species are the interacting parts of multispecies systems. This has led to a community approach, involving the study of interrelationships between species within com munities and investigation of the actual organization of natural communities as a whole. The formalization of a number of new concepts and ideas has evolved from this approach, including niche theory, resource allocation, guild structure, limiting similarity, niche width and overlap etc. , which, until fairly recently, have been examined mainly from a theoretical point of view. However, a wealth of field data is gradually being added to the literature, especially from the general areas of island biogeography and resource partitioning amongst closely related species. Community structure embodies patterns of resource allocation and spatial and temporal abundance of species of the community, as well a. '1 community level properties such as trophic levels, succession, nutrient cycling etc.

Author : Klaus Ammann
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9783764359171
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.7X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Methods for Risk Assessment of Transgenic Plants written by Klaus Ammann and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-10-25 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Berne Symposium invited leading scientists of risk assessment research with transgenic crops on an international level in order to enhance the discussion regulators and members of the biotech industry. The goal was to determine the status quo and also to make progress in times of a first global spread of transgenes in agrosystems about risk assessment. The dialogue between scientists, regulators and industry representatives also revealed some lacunes of risk assessment research, which will have to be filled in the future: We still lack longterm experience, for which we will have to collect data with scientific precision. The symposium concluded asking for a risk-oriented longterm monitoring system based on critical science and hard data. This volume presents the discussion sessions as well as the scientific contributions and thus mirrors the risk assessment debate, based not on exaggerated negative scenarios but on critical science and hard data.

Author : James P. Grover
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461563976
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Resource Competition written by James P. Grover and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As one of the most quantitative of ecological subdisciplines, resource competition is an important, central area of ecology. Recently research into this area has increased dramatically and resource competition models have become more complex. The characterisation of this phenomenon is therefore the aim of this book. Resource Competition seeks to identify the unifying principles emerging from experimental and theoretical approaches as well as the differences between organisms, illustrating that greater knowledge of resource competition will benefit human and environmental welfare. This book will serve as an indispensable guide to ecologists, evolutionary biologists and environmental managers, and all those interested in resource competition as an emerging discipline.

Author : P. Yodzis
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642930972
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Competition for Space and the Structure of Ecological Communities written by P. Yodzis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is an investigation of interspecific competition for space, particularly among sessile organisms, both plant and animal, and its consequences for community structure. While my own contribu tion ----and the bulk of this volume --- lies in mathematical analysis of the phenomenon, I have also tried to summarize the most important natural historical aspects of these communities, and have devoted much effort to relating the mathematical results to observations of the natural world. Thus, the volume has both a synthetic and an analytic aspect. On the one hand, I have been struck by certain similarities among many communities, from forests to mussel beds, in which spatial com petition is important. On the other hand, I have analyzed this pheno menon by means of reaction-dispersal models. Finally, the mathematical analysis has suggested a conceptual framework for these communities which, I believe, further unifies and illuminates the field data. A focal perception of this work is that, just as niche relations provide an appropriate expression of the influence of resource compe tition on community structure, so do dominance relations provide an appropriate expression of the influence of spatial competition.