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OverviewDespite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context. Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book. Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales.Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Stephen P. HubbellPublisher: Princeton University Press Imprint: Princeton University Press Volume: 32 Dimensions: Width: 14.00cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 21.60cm Weight: 0.425kg ISBN: 9780691021287ISBN 10: 0691021287 Pages: 392 Publication Date: 29 April 2001 Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In stock  We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately. Language: English Table of ContentsReviewsHighly innovative and insightful... Ideas are conveyed clearly and the addition of summary points at the end of each chapter facilitates assimilation. -- Richard T. Busing, Ecological Engineering Hubbell's book is a very exciting one, deeply original, based on extensive field data, and convincing in its 'simple' explanations of many broad-scale patterns in biodiversity and biogeography. It will probably cause controversies, but primarily stimulate further research. -- Gottfried Jetschke, Ecology [This] is a rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic and Applied Ecology A rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution... Once you start reading it, you will find it not a page too long. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic Applied Ecology This is an important contribution to the development of a much sought-after explanation of pattern and process in an increasingly threatened global resource. -- Michael E. Meadows, Environmental Conservation Hubbell has produced a book for all those who think about how communities are put together, even the not so mathematically minded... [It] is sure to influence how community ecology is done for years to come. -- Sandra Knapp, Biological Conservation Highly innovative and insightful... Ideas are conveyed clearly and the addition of summary points at the end of each chapter facilitates assimilation. -- Richard T. Busing, Ecological Engineering Hubbell's book is a very exciting one, deeply original, based on extensive field data, and convincing in its 'simple' explanations of many broad-scale patterns in biodiversity and biogeography. It will probably cause controversies, but primarily stimulate further research. -- Gottfried Jetschke, Ecology [This] is a rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic and Applied Ecology A rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution... Once you start reading it, you will find it not a page too long. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic Applied Ecology This is an important contribution to the development of a much sought-after explanation of pattern and process in an increasingly threatened global resource. -- Michael E. Meadows, Environmental Conservation Hubbell has produced a book for all those who think about how communities are put together, even the not so mathematically minded... [It] is sure to influence how community ecology is done for years to come. -- Sandra Knapp, Biological Conservation Highly innovative and insightful... Ideas are conveyed clearly and the addition of summary points at the end of each chapter facilitates assimilation. -- Richard T. Busing Ecological Engineering Hubbell's book is a very exciting one, deeply original, based on extensive field data, and convincing in its 'simple' explanations of many broad-scale patterns in biodiversity and biogeography. It will probably cause controversies, but primarily stimulate further research. -- Gottfried Jetschke Ecology [This] is a rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. -- Carsten F. Dormann Basic and Applied Ecology A rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution... Once you start reading it, you will find it not a page too long. -- Carsten F. Dormann Basic Applied Ecology This is an important contribution to the development of a much sought-after explanation of pattern and process in an increasingly threatened global resource. -- Michael E. Meadows Environmental Conservation Hubbell has produced a book for all those who think about how communities are put together, even the not so mathematically minded... [It] is sure to influence how community ecology is done for years to come. -- Sandra Knapp Biological Conservation Author InformationStephen P. Hubbell is Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia and Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. He is the author of more than one hundred papers in tropical plant ecology, theoretical ecology, and plant-animal interactions. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Pew Scholar Award in Conservation and the Environment. He is Chairman of the National Council for Science and the Environment (formerly the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment) and the inventor of Extinction: The Game of Ecology. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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