Michael Begon - Ecology

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MICHAEL BEGON

University of LiverpoolLiverpool, UK

COLIN R. TOWNSEND

University of OtagoDunedin, New Zealand

FIFTH EDITION

This fifth edition first published 2021 © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Edition History 4e, Wiley, 2006; 3e, Wiley, 1996; 2e, Wiley 1990; 1e, Wiley, 1986

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Michael Begon and Colin R. Townsend to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Begon, Michael, author. | Townsend, Colin R., author.

Title: Ecology : from individuals to ecosystems / Michael Begon, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, Colin Townsend, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Description: Fifth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020012775 (print) | LCCN 2020012776 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119279358 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119279372 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119279310 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Ecology.

Classification: LCC QH541 .B415 2020 (print) | LCC QH541 (ebook) | DDC 577–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012775LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012776

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Credit: Decorators painting wall © Dougal Waters/Getty Images

Panel of Native American Newspaper Rock petroglyphs © milehightraveler/Getty Image

This book is dedicated to our families, and especially to our children and grandchildren,who will inherit the ecosystems we hand on to them –by Mike to Linda, Jessica, Robert, Carl, Ria and Erica,and by Colin to Dominic, Brennan, Amelie and Ella

This book is about the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and about the physical, chemical and especially the biological features and interactions that determine these distributions and abundances.

Unlike some other sciences, the subject matter of ecology is apparent to everybody: most people have observed and pondered the natural world. In this sense most people are ecologists of sorts. But ecology is not an easy science. It must deal explicitly with three separate levels of the biological hierarchy – the individual organisms, the populations of organisms, and the communities of populations. What’s more, as we shall see, it can’t ignore the detailed biology of individuals, or the pervading influences of historical, evolutionary and geological events. It feeds on advances in our knowledge of biochemistry, behaviour, climatology, plate tectonics and so on, but it feeds back to our understanding of vast areas of biology too. One of the fathers of modern evolutionary biology, T. H. Dobzhansky famously claimed, in the middle of the 20th century, that ‘Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution’. But equally, very little in evolution, and hence in biology as a whole, makes sense, except in the light of ecology.