Ecological Implications of Body Size

Name: Ecological Implications of Body Size
Price: 47.44 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780521288866

ISBN-10: 052128886X

ISBN-13: 9780521288866

Edition: 1986

Authors: Robert Henry Peters, H. J. B. Birks, J. A. Wiens

List price: $92.99

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Description:

It is generally recognized that larger animals eat more, live longer, have larger offspring, and so on; but it is unusual to see these commonplace observations as a basis for scientific biology. A large number of empirically based relationships describe biological rates as simple functions of body size; and other such relations predict the intrinsic rate of population growth, animal speed, animal density, territory size, prey size, physiology, and morphology. Such equations almost always exist for mammals and birds, often for other vertebrates and invertebrates, sometimes for protozoa, algae, and bacteria, and occasionally even for plants. There are too many organisms to measure all aspects…

Book details

List price: $92.99
Copyright year: 1986
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 3/31/1986
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 344
Size: 5.98" wide x 9.02" long x 0.79" tall
Weight: 1.122
Language: English

John P. Smol is a professor in the Biology Department at Queen's University (Canada), with a cross-appointment at the School of Environmental Studies. He co-directs the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL). Professor Smol is co-editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology and holds the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change.William M. Last is a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at University of Manitoba (Canada) and is co-editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology.



Preface



A philosophical introduction


The nature of scientific theory


Example: Daily sleep and body size in herbivorous mammals


Scientific crisis in ecology



A mathematical primer: Logarithms, power curves, and correlations


Basic tools


Regression analysis



Metabolism


The balanced growth equation


Respiration


Interpretations and implications



Physiological correlates of size


Introduction


Mammalian models of respiratory and circulatory physiology



Temperature and metabolic rate


Temperature, size, and metabolism: A regression model


The estimation of body temperature


The effects of ambient temperature


Other factors and other processes



Locomotion


Description of the metabolic costs of locomotion


Speeds of locomotion


Transport costs


Moving metabolic rates



Ingestion


Some basic properties


Other factors


Prey size



Production: Growth and reproduction


The scaling of life history


Population production


An individual production term for the balanced growth equation



Mass flow


The autecology of material flows


Nutrients and nutrient turnover



Animal abundance


The numerical density of individual species


Home range area


Community size structure



Other allometric relations


Animal behavior


Ecological economics


Evolution



Allometric simulation models


Introduction


The basic model



Explanations


Two basic components of allometric explanations


Some allometric explanations



Prospectus


Appendixes


References


Index