Peter W. PriceCambridge University PressEdition: Illustrated, 11/14/2002EAN 9780521520379, ISBN10: 0521520371Paperback, 291 pages, 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8 cmLanguage: EnglishIn Macroevolutionary Theory on Macroecological Patterns, Peter Price establishes a completely new vision of the central themes in ecology. For the first time in book form, the study of distribution, abundance, and population size variation in animals is cast in an evolutionary framework. The book argues that evolved characters of organisms such as morphology, behavior, and life history influence strongly their ecological relationships, including the way that populations fluctuate through time and space. The central ideas in the book are supported by data gathered from over twenty years of research, primarily into plant and herbivore interactions, concentrating on insects. The huge diversity of insect herbivores provides the immense comparative power necessary for a strong evolutionary study of ecological principles. The book is intended as essential reading for all researchers and students of ecology, evolutionary biology, and behavior, and for entomologists working in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry.PrefaceAcknowledgements1. The general thesis2. Historical views on distribution, abundance, and population dynamics3. The focal species - basic biology4. The focal species - emergent properties5. The focal group - the common sawflies6. Convergent constraints in divergent taxonomic groups7. Divergent constraints and emergent properties8. Common constraints and divergent emergent properties9. The thesis applied to parasitoids, vertebrate taxa, and plants10. Theory development and synthesisGlossaryReferencesAuthor indexTaxonomic indexSubject index.
