Structure and Dynamics of Forests under Logging Concession in Papua, Indonesia Yosias Gandhi (Autor)

by Yosias Gandhi
Structure and Dynamics of Forests under Logging Concession in Papua, Indonesia Yosias Gandhi (Autor)
Author: Yosias Gandhi
Publisher: Cuvillier Verlag
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2022-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3736966342
GET BOOK

The sexiest lowland forests in Papua Indonesia, hosting many high-valued timber species, attract the country’s authorities to allocate 94% as production forests. The main aim is to manage the forests sustainably under a concessionaire system strongly requiring sustainable-sense protocols stated in the national silviculture system-TPTI. However, in many cases, the logging activities in the tropics fail to perform sustainability in production and ecological integrity due to unavoidable high harvesting intensity adopted in uniform cutting protocols. Therefore, comprehending an intact forest’s local-specific features helps develop an adaptable silviculture technique. The book elaborates on 143 species identified in two logging concessions of Papua and explains significant differences in the distinct primary forests formed by the species. It also reveals the individuals and species of commercial timbers left after logging. Furthermore, it presentably discusses the current logging impacts potentially changing the species’ relative abundance, downgrading the future degree of tree diversity and causing a massive timber volume reduction that fizzles out to enter the third cycle. Additionally, the state-of-the-art method of relating species’ slope structure with its sapwood content of δ15N and N is conceptually explained to classify 103 species by light-requirement trait. Therefore, it is a critical indicator for species selection in the enrichment planting of pre-grown seedlings and subsequent tending. Ultimately, including a combination of species-specific minimum cutting diameter in TPTI with the consequence of enlarging the concession area becomes the ambitious goal of this work.

Conflict and Cooperation in Microbial Societies

by Ana E. Escalante
Conflict and Cooperation in Microbial Societies
Author: Ana E. Escalante
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre:
ISBN: 2889451437
GET BOOK

The most evident aspect of biodiversity is the variety of complex forms and behaviors among organisms, both living and extinct. Comparative molecular and physiological studies show that the evolution of complex phenotypic traits involves multiple levels of biological organization (i.e. genes, chromosomes, organelles, cells, individual organisms, species, etc.). Regardless of the specific molecular mechanisms and details, the evolution of different complex biological organizations share a commonality: cooperation and conflict among the parts of the biological unit under study. The potential for conflict among parts is abundant. How then do complex systems persist, given the necessity of cooperative behavior for their maintenance, when the potential for conflict occurs across all levels of biological organization? In this Research Topic and eBook we present ideas and work on the question, how coexistence of biological components at different levels of organization persists in the face of antagonistic, conflicting or even exploitative behavior of the parts? The goal of this topic is in presenting examples of cooperation and conflict at different levels of biological organization to discuss the consequences that this “tension” have had in the diversification and emergence of novel phenotypic traits. Exemplary cases are studies investigating: the evolution of genomes, formation of colonial aggregates of cells, biofilms, the origin and maintenance of multicellular organisms, and the stable coexistence of multispecies consortia producing a cooperative product. Altogether, we hope that the contributions to this Research Topic build towards mechanistic knowledge of the biological phenomenon of coexistence in the face of conflict. We believe that knowledge on the mechanisms of the origin and evolutionary maintenance of cooperation has implications beyond evolutionary biology such as novel approaches in controlling microbial infections in medicine and the modes by studies in synthetic biology are conducted when designing economically important microbial consortia.

Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. (MPB-26), Volume 26

by David Tilman
Plant Strategies and the Dynamics and Structure of Plant Communities. (MPB-26), Volume 26
Author: David Tilman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691209596
GET BOOK

Although ecologists have long considered morphology and life history to be important determinants of the distribution, abundance, and dynamics of plants in nature, this book contains the first theory to predict explicitly both the evolution of plant traits and the effects of these traits on plant community structure and dynamics. David Tilman focuses on the universal requirement of terrestrial plants for both below-ground and above-ground resources. The physical separation of these resources means that plants face an unavoidable tradeoff. To obtain a higher proportion of one resource, a plant must allocate more of its growth to the structures involved in its acquisition, and thus necessarily obtain a lower proportion of another resource. Professor Tilman presents a simple theory that includes this constraint and tradeoff, and uses the theory to explore the evolution of plant life histories and morphologies along productivity and disturbance gradients. The book shows that relative growth rate, which is predicted to be strongly influenced by a plant's proportional allocation to leaves, is a major determinant of the transient dynamics of competition. These dynamics may explain the differences between successions on poor versus rich soils and suggest that most field experiments performed to date have been of too short a duration to allow unambiguous interpretation of their results.

The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57)

by Mark Vellend
The Theory of Ecological Communities (MPB-57)
Author: Mark Vellend
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0691208999
GET BOOK

A plethora of different theories, models, and concepts make up the field of community ecology. Amid this vast body of work, is it possible to build one general theory of ecological communities? What other scientific areas might serve as a guiding framework? As it turns out, the core focus of community ecology—understanding patterns of diversity and composition of biological variants across space and time—is shared by evolutionary biology and its very coherent conceptual framework, population genetics theory. The Theory of Ecological Communities takes this as a starting point to pull together community ecology's various perspectives into a more unified whole. Mark Vellend builds a theory of ecological communities based on four overarching processes: selection among species, drift, dispersal, and speciation. These are analogues of the four central processes in population genetics theory—selection within species, drift, gene flow, and mutation—and together they subsume almost all of the many dozens of more specific models built to describe the dynamics of communities of interacting species. The result is a theory that allows the effects of many low-level processes, such as competition, facilitation, predation, disturbance, stress, succession, colonization, and local extinction to be understood as the underpinnings of high-level processes with widely applicable consequences for ecological communities. Reframing the numerous existing ideas in community ecology, The Theory of Ecological Communities provides a new way for thinking about biological composition and diversity.

Southwood's Ecological Methods

by Peter A. Henderson
Southwood's Ecological Methods
Author: Peter A. Henderson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2021
Genre: Science
ISBN: 019886227X
GET BOOK

Ecological Methods by the late T.R. E. Southwood and revised over the years by P. A. Henderson has developed into a classic reference work for the field biologist. It provides a handbook of ecological methods and analytical techniques pertinent to the study of animals, with an emphasis on non-microscopic animals in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. It remains unique in the breadth of the methods presented and in the depth of the literature cited, stretching right back to the earliest days of ecological research. The universal availability of R as an open source package has radically changed the way ecologists analyse their data. In response, Southwood's classic text has been thoroughly revised to be more relevant and useful to a new generation of ecologists, making the vast resource of R packages more readily available to the wider ecological community. By focusing on the use of R for data analysis, supported by worked examples, the book is now more accessible than previous editions to students requiring support and ideas for their projects. Southwood's Ecological Methods provides a crucial resource for both graduate students and research scientists in applied ecology, wildlife ecology, fisheries, agriculture, conservation biology, and habitat ecology. It will also be useful to the many professional ecologists, wildlife biologists, conservation biologists and practitioners requiring an authoritative overview of ecological methodology.

Competition and Coexistence

by Ulrich Sommer
Competition and Coexistence
Author: Ulrich Sommer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642561667
GET BOOK

The question "Why are there so many species?" has puzzled ecologist for a long time. Initially, an academic question, it has gained practical interest by the recent awareness of global biodiversity loss. Species diversity in local ecosystems has always been discussed in relation to the problem of competi tive exclusion and the apparent contradiction between the competitive exclu sion principle and the overwhelming richness of species found in nature. Competition as a mechanism structuring ecological communities has never been uncontroversial. Not only its importance but even its existence have been debated. On the one extreme, some ecologists have taken competi tion for granted and have used it as an explanation by default if the distribu tion of a species was more restricted than could be explained by physiology and dispersal history. For decades, competition has been a core mechanism behind popular concepts like ecological niche, succession, limiting similarity, and character displacement, among others. For some, competition has almost become synonymous with the Darwinian "struggle for existence", although simple plausibility should tell us that organisms have to struggle against much more than competitors, e.g. predators, parasites, pathogens, and envi ronmental harshness.

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics

by
Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128014334
GET BOOK

The theme of this volume is to discuss Eco-evolutionary Dynamics. - Updates and informs the reader on the latest research findings - Written by leading experts in the field - Highlights areas for future investigation

Ecosystems of Florida

by Ronald L. Myers
Ecosystems of Florida
Author: Ronald L. Myers
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 765
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780813010229
GET BOOK

Between roughly 25 and 31 degrees north latitude, a combination of flat topography, poor soils, and limited surface water produce deserts nearly everywhere on earth. In Florida, however, these conditions support a lavish biota, more diverse than that of any other state east of the Mississippi. In this first comprehensive guide to the state's natural resources in sixty years, thirty top scholars describe the character, relationships, and importance of Florida's ecosystems, the organisms that inhabit them, the forces that maintain them, and the agents that threaten them. From pine flatwoods to coral reef, Ecosystems of Florida provides a detailed, comprehensive, authoritative account of the peninsular state's complex, fragile environments.