Focuses on current concepts in evolutionary ecology and the empirical study of these concepts. Chapters are written by prominent biologists who have made significant contributions to this field and both synthesize the current state of knowledge and identify areas for future investigation. It is divided into five major sections: an overview of the major topics in evolutionary biology for ecologists, and sections on life histories, behaviour, co-evolution, and adaptation to anthropogenic change.
PART 1: RECURRING THEMES; 1. Nature and Causes of Variation; 2. Evolutionary Significance of Variation; 3. Natural Selection; 4. Adaptation; 5. Phenotypic Plasticity; 6. Population Structure; 7. Inbreeding and Outbreeding; PART 2: LIFE HISTORIES; 8. Age and Size at Maturity; 9. Offspring Size and Number; 10. Senescence; 11. Life Cycles; 12. Sex and Gender; 13. Sex Ratios and Sex Allocation; 14. Ecological Specialization and Generalization; PART 3: BEHAVIOR; 15. Mating Systems; 16. Sexual Selection; 17. Cooperation and Altruism; 18. Foraging Behaviour; 19. The Evolutionary Ecology of Management; PART 4: INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS; 20. Ecological Character Displacement; 21. Predator-Prey Interactions; 22. Parasite-Host Interactions; 23. Plant-Herbivore Interactions; 24. Mutualisms; 25. The Geographic Dynamics of Coevolution; PART 5: ADAPTATION TO ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGE; 26. Pesticide Resistance; 27. Predicting the Outcome of Biological Control; 28. Evolutionary Conservation Biology; REFERENCES; INDEX
"[A]n excellent overview of research in evolutionary ecology. The book is extremely up-to-date, authoritative, well written, and ... well produced. ... The editors certainly are to be commended on the list of authors that they have gathered. The table of contents reads like a miniature who's who of evolutionary ecology ... The authors and editors have done a better job of referring between chapters than in any other edited volume I have read. ... a valuable book for a wide audience."--Ecology
"This work introduces many of the important topics in evolutionary ecology. ... [the] chapters [are] written almost exclusively by notable scientists ..."--Choice
"[E]ven experts working within particular areas of the field will find many of the chapters outside their primary area of research interesting and stimulating ... the 35 authors constitute a vertiable "who's who" in the field. ... the breadth of coverage is impressive ... In many respects the book has a cohesiveness usually fou