http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
"This book raises and attempts to answer the following thought experiment: 'For any planet with carbon-based life, which persists over geological timescales, what is the minimum set of ecological processes that must be present?' The main intention of this book is to use an astrobiological perspective as a means of thinking about ecology on Earth. Its focus on processes contrasts with the commoner focus in ecology textbooks on entities such as individuals, populations, species, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere. The book suggests that eight ecological processes are fundamental (not including natural selection and competition, which characterize all of life rather than only ecology): energy flow (energy consumption and waste product excretion), multiple guilds (autotrophs, decomposers, and parasites), trade-offs (specialization versus generalization, leading to biodiversity within guilds), dispersal, ecological hypercycles (i.e. auto-catalytic cycles), merging of organismal and ecological physiology (as life spreads over the planet, biotic and abiotic processes interact so strongly as to be inseparable), photosynthesis (which is likely in most biospheres but not inevitable), and carbon sequestration. These fundamental processes lead to the emergence of nutrient cycling. The integration of Earth system science with ecology is vitally important if ecological science is to successfully contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global change. The book is heavily influenced by Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis--with recent theoretical work on Gaian systems discussed in the final chapter"--Publisher's description.
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Preface -- Contents -- PART I Introduction -- 1 Introducing the thought experiment -- 1.1 The entangled bank -- 1.2 The entity approach -- 1.3 A process-based approach -- 1.4 The Gaian effect -- 1.5 Overview -- PART II The Fundamental Processes -- 2 Energy flow -- 2.1 The second law of thermodynamics -- 2.2 Schrödinger, entropy, and free energy -- 2.3 Sources of free energy -- 2.4 Maximum entropy production and planetary ecology -- 2.5 Overview -- 3 Multiple guilds -- 3.1 The importance of waste -- 3.2 The requirement for multiple guilds
3.3 Predators and parasites -- 3.4 Parasites introduce a potentially important mechanism for density-dependent regulation -- 3.5 Other effects of parasites -- 3.6 Overview -- 4 Trade-offs and biodiversity -- 4.1 The problem of biodiversity -- 4.2 Trade-offs illustrated by human sporting performance -- 4.3 Trade-offs in ecology -- 4.4 Trade-offs and biodiversity -- 4.5 The Gaian effect of biodiversity -- 4.6 Overview -- 5 Dispersal -- 5.1 Tansley's beechwoods -- 5.2 The evolution of dispersal -- 5.3 Dispersal as a key process in ecology -- 5.4 Dispersal at an astronomical scale? -- 5.5 Overview
6 Ecological hypercycles: covering a planet with life -- 6.1 Darwin's earth worms -- 6.2 Hypercycles in ecology -- 6.3 Covering a planet with life -- 6.4 Why would persistent restricted ecologies be unlikely? -- 6.5 The end of life on a planet -- 6.6 Overview -- 7 Merging of organismal and ecological physiology -- 7.1 From beavers to planetary ecology -- 7.2 Daisyworld -- 7.3 Examples of the role of life in planetary physiology on Earth -- 7.4 The importance of biomass: an illustration from Earth's past -- 7.5 Biomass and Gaia -- 7.6 Overview -- 8 Photosynthesis
8.1 Quantification and mysticism in the seventeenth century -- 8.2 The diversity of photosynthesis on Earth -- 8.3 Photosynthesis and the Earth system -- 8.4 Oxygen and the Earth system -- 8.5 Is photosynthesis a fundamental process? -- 8.6 Overview -- 9 Carbon sequestration -- 9.1 Carbon sequestration and landscape change in northwest England -- 9.2 A tale of two cycles: short- and long-term carbon cycles -- 9.3 The role of life: from geochemical cycles to biogeochemical cycles -- 9.4 Co-evolution of plants and carbon dioxide on Earth -- 9.5 Oxygen and carbon sequestration on Earth
9.6 Humans and carbon sequestration -- 9.7 Carbon sequestration as a fundamental process -- 9.8 Overview -- Part III Emerging Systems -- 10 Nutrient cycling as an emergent property -- 10.1 The paradox of the goldfish -- 10.2 Trade-offs and in vitro evolution -- 10.3 Emergence of biogeochemical cycles -- 10.4 Cycling ratios and biotic plunder -- 10.5 Overview -- 11 Historical contingency and the development of planetary ecosystems -- 11.1 Carus and the thunderbolt: chance and change in history -- 11.2 Historical contingency and ecology -- 11.3 Historical contingency and the Earth system
This edition also issued in print: 2023.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2023]