rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    non sort: The
    title: fundamental processes in ecology
    sub title: life and the earth system
  name:
    name part: Wilkinson, David M.
    name part: 1963-
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  genre: Electronic books.
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: enk
    date issued: 2023
    copyright date: 2023
    edition: Second edition.
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: remote
    extent: 1 online resource : illustrations
  abstract: "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.
  table of contents: 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
  table of contents: 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
  table of contents: 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
  table of contents: 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
  table of contents: 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
  target audience: Specialized.
  target audience: specialized
  note: David Wilkinson.
  note: This edition also issued in print: 2023.
  note: Previous edition: 2006.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    topic: Ecology
  subject:
    topic: Ecology
  subject:
    topic: Biology, life sciences
  subject:
    topic: Environment and Ecology
  classification: QH541 .W455 2023
  classification: 577
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Fundamental processes in ecology
    name:
      name part: Wilkinson, David M., 1963-
    origin info:
      publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2023]
      edition: Second edition.
    identifier: (DLC) 2023938491
    identifier: (OCoLC)1393182230
  identifier: 9780191980343
  identifier: 019198034X
  identifier: 9780192884664
  identifier: 0192884662
  identifier: 9780192884640
  identifier: 0192884646
  identifier: http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login
  record info:
    record content source: STBDS
    record creation date: 230721
    record change date: 20260318165920.5
    record identifier: in00005698636
    language of cataloging:
      language term: eng