Adaptive radiation is the evolution of diversity within a rapidly multiplying lineage. It can cause a single ancestral species to differentiate into an impressively vast array of species inhabiting a variety of environments. Much of life's diversity…
This novel book bridges the gap between the energetic and species approaches to studying food webs, addressing many important topics in ecology. Species, matter, and energy are common features of all ecological systems. Through the lens of complex a…
Why does brain size vary so widely among vertebrate animal species? What role has natural selection played in shaping the structure and function of the vertebrate brain? This accessible book unravels the myriad adaptive explanations that have built…
'Species' are central to understanding the origin and dynamics of biological diversity; explaining why lineages split into multiple distinct species is one of the main goals of evolutionary biology. However the existence of species is often taken fo…
This important new volume in the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution examines the mechanism and action of natural selection in evolution. Williams offers his own synthesis of modern evolutionary theory - including discussions of the gene as the u…
This book examines our current understanding of the population dynamics of one kind of interaction - that between insect parasitoids and their hosts. Parasitoids are amongst the most abundant of all animals, and make up about 10% or more of metazoan…
This book deals with the ecological effect a species can have when it moves into an environment that it has not previously occupied (commonly referred to as an `Invasion'). It is unique in presenting a clear and accessible introduction to a highly c…
Birds show bewildering diversity in their life histories, mating systems and risk of extinction. Why do albatrosses delay reproduction for the first 12 years of their life while zebra finches breed in their first year ? Why are fairy-wrens so sexual…
This book provides, for the first time, a synthesiws of quantitative information on the ecology of the brown trout, including sea-trout, and comparisons with closely related species such as the Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon, and rainbow trout. Muc…
The origin of biological diversity, via the formation of new species, can be inextricably linked to adaptation to the ecological environment. Specifically, ecological processes are central to the formation of new species when barriers to gene flow (…
Aboveground-Belowground Linkages provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in our understanding of the roles that interactions between aboveground and belowground communities play in regulating the structure and fun…
Recent progress in the field of wildlife disease ecology demonstrates that infectious disease plays a crucial role in the lives of wild animals. Parasites and pathogens should be especially important for social animals in which high contact among in…
An advanced textbook suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers in the fields of behavioural ecology, primatology, conservation biology, biological anthropology, public health and wildlife epidemiology.
An important empirical test of the theoretical predictions of sexual selection theory, this book presents a long-term field study of the monagamous barn swallow. By using information on behaviour, ecology, morphology, genetics, and evolution, the bo…
This pioneering graduate textbook provides readers with the concepts and practical tools required to understand the maximum entropy principle, and apply it to an understanding of ecological patterns. Rather than building and combining mechanistic mo…
Metapopulation Ecology presents a comprehensive synthesis of current research in this rapidly expanding area of population biology, from an author who is world-famous for his ground-breaking work on metapopulations. It encompasses both the essential…
This book celebrates the guppy's unique contribution to evolutionary ecology. Ever since Caryl Haskins described guppy populations as a 'natural experiment' because of the way predation pressure varies over a small geographical area, generations of…
From Darwin onward, it has been second nature for evolutionary biologists to think comparatively because comparisons establish the generality of evolutionary phenomena. Do large genomes slow down development? What lifestyles select for large brains?…
This novel, interdisciplinary text achieves an integration of empirical data and theory with the aid of mathematical models and statistical methods. The emphasis throughout is on spatial ecology and evolution, especially on the interplay between env…
The principles of game theory apply to a wide range of topics in biology. This book presents the central concepts in evolutionary game theory and provides an authoritative and up-to-date account. The focus is on concepts that are important for biolo…
No species occurs everywhere. Indeed, the majority are absent from most places, and where they do occur they are usually quite rare. Gaston discusses the structure of these distributions - the structure of the geographic ranges of species. Gaston is…
Natural Hybridation and Evolution includes data from numerous sources that support the paradigm of natural hybridization as an important evolutionary process. The review of these data results in a challenge of the dogma that is the explicit or impli…
This novel text provides a concise synthesis of how the interactions between mitochondrial and nuclear genes have played a major role in shaping the ecology and evolution of eukaryotes. The foundation for this new focus on mitonuclear interactions o…
At first sight just a small brown bird, the dunnock's unobtrusive appearance belies its extraordinary behaviour and mating patterns. In this book Nick Davies gives a full account of the mating systems of the dunnock or hedge sparrow, Prunella modula…
In this book, Eric Charnov uses ideas about symmetry, invariance, and scaling laws to explore aspects of population dynamics and the evolution of male and female life histories. Charnov's work is internationally known and will attract great interest…
Evolutionary biomechanics is the study of evolution through the analysis of biomechanical systems. Its unique advantage is the precision with which physical constraints and performance can be predicted from first principles. Instead of reviewing the…
One of the main tenets of evolutionary biology is that organisms behave so as to maximize the number of their genes that will be passed on to future generations. Parents often produce more offspring than they can rear in case special opportunities o…
RNA viruses provide unique insights into the patterns and processes of evolutionary change in real time. The study of viral evolution is especially topical given the growing awareness that emerging and re-emerging diseases (most of which are caused…
All populations fluctuate stochastically, creating a risk of extinction that does not exist in deterministic models, with fundamental consequences for both pure and applied ecology. This book provides the most comprehensive introduction to stochasti…
Living things are organized in a hierarchy of levels. Genes group together in cells, cells group together in organisms, and organisms group together in societies. Even different species form mutualistic partnerships. Throughout the history of life,…
In this book, Yosiaki Ito presents data on tropical wasps which suggests that kin-selection has been over-emphasized as an evolutionary explanation of sociality. He concentrates on the Vespidae (paper wasps and hornets), a group much discussed by ev…
This book outlines four different categories of co-operation — reciprocal altruism, kinship, group-selected co-operation, and by-product mutualism — and ties them together in a single framework called the Co-operator's Dilemma. Hundreds…
Group Living is a widespread phenomenon within the animal kingdom and has attracted considerable attention in a number of different contexts. This book is focused on the unifying concepts regarding group behaviour that have been developed over the l…
The application of new molecular technology has greatly increased our understanding of the role of chromosomal change in plant evolution. There is now a broad database on genome size variation within and among species and a wide array of nuclear and…
This work provides a unified theory that addresses the important problem of the origin and maintenance of genetic variation in natural populations. With modern molecular techniques, variation is found in all species, sometimes at astonishingly high…
Population dynamics and animal behaviour are two subjects which have developed almost independently, despite widespread acceptance of the idea that they must be related. This book provides a novel framework for combining these two subjects and then…
This volume presents ecological consequences and evolutionary mechanisms that may be associated with behavioral alterations in parasitized hosts. Alterations may result from natural selection favoring the host or parasite, or there may be side effec…
Each plant species has its own unique passage that is affected by its gene pool, dispersal ability, interactions with competitors and pests, and the habitats and climactic conditions to which it is exposed. This book will explore plant species as dy…
The field of molecular evolution has experienced explosive growth in recent years due to the rapid accumulation of genetic sequence data, continuous improvements to computer hardware and software, and the development of sophisticated analytical meth…
Why are most animal signals reliable? This is the central problem for evolutionary biologists interested in signals. A number of theoretical answers have been proposed and empirical studies made, but a considerable amount of confusion still remains.…
This book introduces readers to a set of powerful and extremely flexible modelling techniques, starting at "square one" and continuing with carefully chosen applications. Some of these applications of methodology include insect oviposition behavior,…
This book is about the genetics and behaviour of individuals within colonies of social insects - bees, wasps, ants, and termites. Colonial living is characterized by division of labour and finely coordinated organization, by reproductive function be…
The Anolis lizards of the Caribbean are a model group from which to study evolutionary ecology: there are more than 150 species dispersed over the islands of the Caribbean, providing innumerable comparisons of physical form and behaviour. Their evol…
Why does nature love symmetry? In Asymmetry, Developmental Stability and Evolution, Møller and Swaddle analyse the evolutionary implications of symmetry. They advance and explain their theory that symmetry is related to genetic stability and fitness…
This is a book about the natural history of oxygen-free environments and their microbial inhabitants. Life originated in the pre-oxic world, and anoxic conditions still persist in many places on Earth such as lake sediments, the guts of ruminants, a…
