Applied Population Ecology

This book provides applied biologists and ecologists with the mathematical tools they need to understand the ever increasingly mathematical and complex area of population ecology.

Accompanying CD-ROM contains shell programs that provide access to the RAMAS Ecolab.

An increasing variety of biological problems involving resource management, conservation and environmental quality have been dealt with using the principles of population biology (defined to include population dynamics, genetics and certain aspects of community ecology). There appears to be a mixed record of successes and failures and almost no critical synthesis or reviews that have attempted to discuss the reasons and ways in which population biology, with its remarkable theoretical as well as experimental advances, could find more useful application in agriculture, forestry, fishery, medicine and resource and environmental management. This book provides examples of state-of-the-art applications by a distinguished group of researchers in several fields. The diversity of topics richly illustrates the scientific and economic breadth of their discussions as well as epistemological and comparative analyses by the authors and editors. Several principles and common themes are emphasized and both strengths and potential sources of uncertainty in applications are discussed. This volume will hopefully stimulate new interdisciplinary avenues of problem-solving research.

A synthesis of contemporary analytical and modeling approaches in population ecology The book provides an overview of the key analytical approaches that are currently used in demographic, genetic, and spatial analyses in population ecology. The chapters present current problems, introduce advances in analytical methods and models, and demonstrate the applications of quantitative methods to ecological data. The book covers new tools for designing robust field studies; estimation of abundance and demographic rates; matrix population models and analyses of population dynamics; and current approaches for genetic and spatial analysis. Each chapter is illustrated by empirical examples based on real datasets, with a companion website that offers online exercises and examples of computer code in the R statistical software platform. Fills a niche for a book that emphasizes applied aspects of population analysis Covers many of the current methods being used to analyse population dynamics and structure Illustrates the application of specific analytical methods through worked examples based on real datasets Offers readers the opportunity to work through examples or adapt the routines to their own datasets using computer code in the R statistical platform Population Ecology in Practice is an excellent book for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in population ecology or ecological statistics, as well as established researchers needing a desktop reference for contemporary methods used to develop robust population assessments.

Ecology is capturing the popular imagination like never before, with issues such as climate change, species extinctions, and habitat destruction becoming ever more prominent. At the same time, the science of ecology has advanced dramatically, growing in mathematical and theoretical sophistication. Here, two leading experts present the fundamental quantitative principles of ecology in an accessible yet rigorous way, introducing students to the most basic of all ecological subjects, the structure and dynamics of populations. John Vandermeer and Deborah Goldberg show that populations are more than simply collections of individuals. Complex variables such as distribution and territory for expanding groups come into play when mathematical models are applied. Vandermeer and Goldberg build these models from the ground up, from first principles, using a broad range of empirical examples, from animals and viruses to plants and humans. They address a host of exciting topics along the way, including age-structured populations, spatially distributed populations, and metapopulations. This second edition of Population Ecology is fully updated and expanded, with additional exercises in virtually every chapter, making it the most up-to-date and comprehensive textbook of its kind. Provides an accessible mathematical foundation for the latest advances in ecology Features numerous exercises and examples throughout Introduces students to the key literature in the field The essential textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students An online illustration package is available to professors

Introduction to Population Ecology, 2ndEdition is a comprehensive textbook covering all aspectsof population ecology. It uses a wide variety of field andlaboratory examples, botanical to zoological, from the tropics tothe tundra, to illustrate the fundamental laws of populationecology. Controversies in population ecology are brought fully upto date in this edition, with many brand new and revised examplesand data. Each chapter provides an overview of how population theory hasdeveloped, followed by descriptions of laboratory and field studiesthat have been inspired by the theory. Topics explored includesingle-species population growth and self-limitation, lifehistories, metapopulations and a wide range of interspecificinteractions including competition, mutualism, parasite-host,predator-prey and plant-herbivore. An additional final chapter, newfor the second edition, considers multi-trophic and other complexinteractions among species. Throughout the book, the mathematics involved is explained with astep-by-step approach, and graphs and other visual aids are used to present a clear illustration of how themodels work. Such features make this an accessible introduction topopulation ecology; essential reading for undergraduate andgraduate students taking courses in population ecology, appliedecology, conservation ecology, and conservation biology, includingthose with little mathematical experience.