The Balance of Nature?
Author | : Stuart L. Pimm |
Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
Total Pages | : 452 |
Release | : 1991 |
ISBN-10 | : 0226668304 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780226668307 |
Rating | : 4/5 (04 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: 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.