Resource Competition and Community Structure (eBook)

David Tilman (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
296 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-20965-4 (ISBN)

Infos

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 "e;super species,"e; the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 31.3.2020
• Reihe/Serie: Monographs in Population Biology
• Reihe/Serie: Monographs in Population Biology
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Schlagworte: Adaptation • Agrostis • Alopecurus • Amino acid • Anabaena • Aphanizomenon • Arrhenatherum • Asterionella • Autotroph • Biological interaction • Biomass (ecology) • Braunton Burrows • Calculation • carnivore • Carrying Capacity • Chemostat • Chrysanthemum • community structure • Competition • Complex response • correlation coefficient • Cydotella • Daphnia • Determinant • Diatom • dichotomy • differential equation • Djenkolic acid • Ecological Succession • Ecology • ecosystem • ecosystem ecology • Enteromorpha • Escherichia coli • Essential amino acid • Eucalypt • eutrophication • Evolution • evolutionary ecology • Experiment • Experimental Lakes Area • Family (Biology) • Fertilizer • Festuca • Flora • foraging • Fragilaria • geometric distribution • G. Evelyn Hutchinson • goodness of fit • Graphical model • Growth curve (biology) • Growth curve (statistics) • Herbivore • heterotroph • Holcus • humped diversity curve • interspecific competition • Isocline • Journal of Ecology • Lathyrus • legume • Leontodon • Leslie matrix • Lotka–Volterra equations • Lysine • Marine Biology • Melosira • Microcystis • Monod equation • Monograph • mortality rate • natural resource • nitrogen • nitrogen fixation • North Dakota prairie • nutrient • Old field (ecology) • Optimal Foraging Theory • organism • Oscillatoria • Paradox of enrichment • Paradox of the plankton • Park Grass Experiment • phenology • Phenotype • Phytoplankton • Plant • Plantago • plant community • Poa • population dynamics • Population Ecology • Population Size • Potassium • predation • Primary succession • Probability • Probability Distribution • Process Control • Pseudomonas • Quantity • Reduced form • Requirement • Rumex • Scenedesmus • Skeletonema • Soil • soil ph • soil type • spatial heterogeneity • species complex • species diversity • Species richness • Stephanodiscus • Synedra • Tabellaria • temperate climate • Trophic level • vascular plant diversity
• ISBN-10: 0-691-20965-0 / 0691209650
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-20965-4 / 9780691209654