MHHE - Product Details

Description

Designed for juniors and seniors, this one-semester laboratory manual is based on mathematical statistics. This new edition provides a wide range of topics for investigation. Author George Cox begins with exercises covering library research, designing an ecological study, and other introductory concepts. He then proceeds to an examination of specific types of measurement and an analysis of various aspects of ecology. Many of these laboratories are tied to current, commercially-available computer programs and software packages.

Table of Contents

Part I Techniques of Ecological Study

1 Designing an Ecological Study

2 Experimental Design in Ecological Studies

3 Sampling Design in Ecological Studies

4 Statistical Analysis and Testing in Ecology

5 Literature Research in Ecology

6 Internet Resources in Ecology

7 Preparing an Ecological Research Paper

Part II Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

8 Plant Community Structure

9 Animal Community Structure

10 Soil Arthropod Community Structure

11 Structure of a Lake Ecosystem

Part III Temperature, Water, and Energy Relations

12 Acclimation to Temperature

13 Behavioral Preference Analysis

14 Plant Water Potential

15 Field Measurement of Photosynthesis and Transpiration

Part IV Population Ecology

16 Mark-Recapture and Catch-Effort Population Estimates

17 Mapping Home Ranges and Territories

18 Intrapopulation Dispersion Analysis

19 Mortality, Recruitment, and Migration Rates in Populations

20 Life Tables and Survivorship Curves

21 Ecogenetic Evolution in Plants

22 Population Growth, Limitation, and Interaction

Part V Intraspecific and Interspecific Interactions

23 Field Studies of Plant Competition

24 Ecological Isolation

25 Niche Breadth, Niche Overlap, and the Community Matrix

26 Interspecific Association

27 Pollination Ecology

Part VI Community Ecology

28 Measurement of Species Diversity

29 Community Similarity and Ordination

30 Nestedness in Community Composition

Part VII Ecosystem Ecology

31 Analysis of Food Webs

32 Primary Production in Terrestrial Ecosystems

33 Primary Production in Aquatic Ecosystems

34 Simulation of Ecosystem Dynamics

35 Mechanisms of Biotic Succession

Part VIII Regional and Global Ecology

36 Species-Area Relationships

37 Metapopulation Dynamics

38 Landscape Ecology

39 Geographic Information Systems

40 Conserving Global Biodiversity

Appendix I Statistical Tables

Appendix II Sources of Software and Hardware

About the Authors

Dr. George Cox, an ecologist, taught at San Diego State University and is dedicated to keeping up with the latest technology in his field. He is also author of a WCB lab manual for general ecology. Dr. Cox now offers consulting services through Biosphere and Biosurvival, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

New Features

Useful appendixes include statistical tables, metric conversions, and an up-to-date listing of software resources.

A new exercise explains how to use the Internet to locate and utilize existing data. Appropriate URL's will be listed.

Exercises on landscape and global ecology will replace older topics to provide more experience in applied ecology as it relates to conservation of biodiversity and local, regional, and global questions.

The eighth edition features a fold-out map of a desert plant community in Borrego Valley, California. This map provides a means for carrying out several exercises involving field studies of plant populations nad communities when it is not possible to go into the field.

Seven new exercises have been added to this edition. These deal with statistical analysis and testing in ecology (Exercise 4), internet resources in ecology (Exercise 6), structure of lake and pond ecosystems (Exercise 11), nestedness in community composition (Exercise 30), analysis of food webs (Exercise 31), landscape ecology (Exercise 38), and conserving the earth's biodiversity (Exercise 40).

Several exercises have been modified to encourage the use of computer programs or software packages. Seven exercises are now structured around software packages that allow sophisticated analysis of questions at the population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels (17, 28, 29, 34, 37, 39, and 40).

To encourage students to think about the major questions that each exercise attempts to address, the author has included a set of three introductory questions at the beginning of each exercise.

A useful guide correlating the exercises in the Lab Manual to our ecology text by Molles is available.