Food Webs
258 pages
|
65 line drawings, 24 tables
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6 x 9
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© 1982, 2002
Food webs are diagrams depicting which species interact or in other words, who eats whom. An understanding of the structure and function of food webs is crucial for any study of how an ecosystem works, including attempts to predict which communities might be more vulnerable to disturbance and therefore in more immediate need of conservation.
Although it was first published twenty years ago, Stuart Pimm's Food Webs remains the clearest introduction to the study of food webs. Reviewing various hypotheses in the light of theoretical and empirical evidence, Pimm shows that even the most complex food webs follow certain patterns and that those patterns are shaped by a limited number of biological processes, such as population dynamics and energy flow. Pimm provides a variety of mathematical tools for unravelling these patterns and processes, and demonstrates their application through concrete examples. For this edition, he has written a new foreword covering recent developments in the study of food webs and demonstrates their continuing importance to conservation biology.
Although it was first published twenty years ago, Stuart Pimm's Food Webs remains the clearest introduction to the study of food webs. Reviewing various hypotheses in the light of theoretical and empirical evidence, Pimm shows that even the most complex food webs follow certain patterns and that those patterns are shaped by a limited number of biological processes, such as population dynamics and energy flow. Pimm provides a variety of mathematical tools for unravelling these patterns and processes, and demonstrates their application through concrete examples. For this edition, he has written a new foreword covering recent developments in the study of food webs and demonstrates their continuing importance to conservation biology.
Ethology, Ecology & Evolution
“Although it was first published 20 years ago . . . this book remains the clearest introduction to the study of food webs. Reviewing various hypotheses in the light of theoretical and empirical evidence, Pimm shows that even the most complex food webs follow certain patterns and that those patterns are shaped by a limited number of biological processes. . . . Pimm provides a variety of mathematical tools for unraveling these patters and processes, and demonstrates their application through concrete examples. For this edition, he has written a new foreword covering recent developments in the study of food webs and demonstrates their continuing importance to conservation biology.”
Owen T. Lewis | Ecoscience
“The main body of the book stands the test of time well. Pimm writes well, and is able to convey complex ideas in a clear accessible way. . . . For many of the topics covered, for example compartmentalization and predator-prey ratios, Pimm’s text is still the most authoritative treatment available. This book remains an essential reference volume for anyone working in the field of foodweb biology.”
Peter G. Fairweather | Austral Ecology
“This is a very nice repackaged book at a modest price. . . . I recommend it to any ecologist interested in the evolution of our views on a pertinent metric of community interaction.”
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Conventions and definitions
Foreword
1 Food webs
1.1 What and why?
1.2 Where
1.3 How?
2 Models and their local stablity
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Models
2.3 Stability
2.4 Summary
Appendix 2A: Taylor's expansion
Appendix 2B: An example of calculating eigenvalues
Appendix 2C: Jacobian matrices
3 Stability: other definitions
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Global stability
3.3 Species deletion stability
3.4 Stability in stochastic environments
3.5 Other stability criteria
3.6 Summary: models and their stabilities—Is there a best buy?
4 Food web compexity I: theoretical results
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Bounds on food web complexity: local stability
4.3 Complexity and stability under large perturbations
4.4 Summary of theoretical results
5 Food web complexity II: empirical results
5.1 Direct tests
5.2 Indirect tests
5.3 Summary
6 The length of food chains
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Hypothesis A: Energy flow
6.3 Hypothesis B: Size and other design constraints
6.4 Hypothesis C: Optimal foraging; why are food chains so long?
6.5 Hypothesis D: Dynamical contraints
6.6 Summary
Appendix 6A: Drawing inferences about food web attributes
7 The patterns of omnivory
7.1 Models of omnivory
7.2 Testing the hypothesis
7.3 Summary
8 Compartments
8.1 Reasons for a compartmented design
8.2 Testing the hypotheses: habits as compartments
8.3 Testing the hypotheses: compartments within habitats
8.4 Four comments
8.5 Summary
9 Descriptive statistics
9.1 Predator-prey ratios
9.2 The number of species of prey that a species exploits and the
number of species of predator it suffers
9.3 Interval and non-interval food webs
9.4 Summary
10 Food web design: causes and consequences
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Causes
10.3 Consequences
10.4 Summary
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Conventions and definitions
Foreword
1 Food webs
1.1 What and why?
1.2 Where
1.3 How?
2 Models and their local stablity
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Models
2.3 Stability
2.4 Summary
Appendix 2A: Taylor's expansion
Appendix 2B: An example of calculating eigenvalues
Appendix 2C: Jacobian matrices
3 Stability: other definitions
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Global stability
3.3 Species deletion stability
3.4 Stability in stochastic environments
3.5 Other stability criteria
3.6 Summary: models and their stabilities—Is there a best buy?
4 Food web compexity I: theoretical results
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Bounds on food web complexity: local stability
4.3 Complexity and stability under large perturbations
4.4 Summary of theoretical results
5 Food web complexity II: empirical results
5.1 Direct tests
5.2 Indirect tests
5.3 Summary
6 The length of food chains
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Hypothesis A: Energy flow
6.3 Hypothesis B: Size and other design constraints
6.4 Hypothesis C: Optimal foraging; why are food chains so long?
6.5 Hypothesis D: Dynamical contraints
6.6 Summary
Appendix 6A: Drawing inferences about food web attributes
7 The patterns of omnivory
7.1 Models of omnivory
7.2 Testing the hypothesis
7.3 Summary
8 Compartments
8.1 Reasons for a compartmented design
8.2 Testing the hypotheses: habits as compartments
8.3 Testing the hypotheses: compartments within habitats
8.4 Four comments
8.5 Summary
9 Descriptive statistics
9.1 Predator-prey ratios
9.2 The number of species of prey that a species exploits and the
number of species of predator it suffers
9.3 Interval and non-interval food webs
9.4 Summary
10 Food web design: causes and consequences
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Causes
10.3 Consequences
10.4 Summary
Bibliography
Index
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