The Ecology Book

39 A male black widow spider gingerly approaches a huge female to mate. This genetically driven act will reproduce his genes but ...

ECOLOGI CAL PROCESS ES US_040-041_Ch_2_Ecological_Processes_Opener.indd 40 12/11/18 8:25 PM ...

ECOLOGI CAL PROCESS ES US_040-041_Ch_2_Ecological_Processes_Opener.indd 41 12/11/18 8:25 PM ...

I n the 5th century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus described watching crocodiles open their jaws for plovers to pick food fr ...

laboratory projects. As William E. Odum put it in 1959, “the ecological niche of an organism depends not only on where it lives, ...

LESSONS FROM MATHEMATICAL THEORY ON THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE PREDATOR–PREY EQUATIONS US_044-049_Predator_prey_equations.indd 44 12/ ...

US_044-049_Predator_prey_equations.indd 45 12/11/18 6:24 PM ...

46 T he predator–prey equations are an early example of the application of mathematics to biology. Formulated in the 1920s by Am ...

47 A cheetah pursues a Thomson’s gazelle. The predator–prey equations are able to model the way populations of both species will ...

48 D’Ancona’s account of a sudden increase in the population of predatory sea fish. One theory to explain this discrepancy start ...

49 The parasitoid wasp lays its eggs in aphids (the smaller, yellow insects shown above). It is called a parasitoid because the ...

50 A n organism’s niche is a combination of its place and its role in the environment. It encompasses how the organism meets its ...

51 See also: Competitive exclusion principle 52–53 ■ Field experiments 54–55 ■ Optimal foraging theory 66–67 ■ Animal ecology 10 ...

52 COMPLETE COMPETITORS CANNOT COEXIST COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE C ompetition is the driver of evolution; the need to be b ...

53 The red squirrel is smaller than the gray, and has a more restricted diet and habitat. Reds may also die from the squirrel pa ...

54 E xperimentation is crucial in ecology. Without it, our ideas about why organisms behave the way they do would be largely spe ...

55 See also: Ecological niches 50–51 ■ Modern view of diversity 90–91 ■ Animal behavior 116–117 ■ The ecosystem 134 –137 ■ Niche ...

56 I n biology, there are several kinds of interaction between organisms. One species in an ecosystem may lose out to another wh ...

57 See also: Evolution by natural selection 24–31 ■ Ecological niches 50–51 ■ Competitive exclusion principle 52–53 ■ Animal eco ...

58 the animal. It is estimated that nearly three-quarters of flowering plants (some 170,000 species) are pollinated by 200,000 a ...