The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities

The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities
ISBN-10
0226668304
ISBN-13
9780226668307
Category
Nature
Pages
434
Language
English
Published
1991
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Author
Stuart L. Pimm

Description

Why "the balance of nature"? Resilience. Temporal variability and the individual species. The effects of food-web structure. The variability of the environment. Nonlinear dynamics, strange attractors, and chaos. Extinctions. Species differences and community structure as explanations of why introductions fail. Patterns in species composition. Food-web structure and community persistence. Community assembly; or why are there so many kinds of communities? Small-scale experimental removals of species. Food webs and resistance. Changes in total density and species composition. The consequences of introductions and extinctions. Multispecies models and their limitations. Conclusions and caveats.

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