Ecology: individuals, populations and communities.

Abstract

Describes how organisms behave and live in relation to their environment and evolutionary history, bearing in mind the different resources that are required, and the nature of the interactions between these resources. The balance between birth rates and death rates, which indicates abundance, is shown to have profound effects on the behaviour of populations. Dispersal of organisms is linked with escape from unfavourable environments and the colonisation and exploitation of new environments. In looking at interactions between organisms, the nature and consequences of intra- and interspecific competition are explored. The nature of predation and grazing, behaviour of consumers and consumed, and implications of predation/grazing for population dynamics are also discussed. Decomposition and detritivore trophic linkages are reviewed, as are parasitism and disease. The evolution of mutualistic relationships is noted. Surveys of the range of life history strategies exhibited by living organisms, and of the range of patterns of abundance, are used to provide overviews of the organismic and the population levels in the ecological hierarchy. The final section considers interactions at the community level, looking at how community patterns change through space and time, examining the flux of energy and matter through communities, and indicating the influence of competition, predation and disturbance on community structure. Aspects of island biogeography theory are also discussed. The final chapters examine community stability and structure, and patterns of species diversity. -P.J.Jarvis