Ecology : Plants, Animals, and the Environment

by Allaby, Michael; Garratt, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780816061006
• ISBN10: 0816061009
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-30
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Discovering the Earth is a Fascinating seven-volume set that describes the steps by which we have reached our cumulative understanding of the way Earth functions. Each volume concentrates on a particular branch of science and area of scientific discovery through the lives and research of individuals of a specific time. Designed to complement science curricula, the books depict the challenges that scientists overcame and the obstacles presented when their contemporaries did not recognize their discoveries as relevant or significant.

Author Biography

Michael Allaby is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than 90 books, mainly on science, natural history, and environmental topics. Among other professional affiliations, he is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Association of British Science Writers. He is also the author of the Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate, Revised Edition (cited by Choice as "recommended").

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xii
Gilbiert White and His Letters to Naturalists	p. 1
The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne	p. 2
Gilbert White, Naturalist of Selborne	p. 3
Controlling Pests to Improve Crop Yields	p. 7
The Beginning of Conservation	p. 12
Renewable Resources in Medieval Forests	p. 15
John Evelyn and Forestry	p. 19
George Perkins Marsh and the Consequences of Deforestation	p. 23
National Parks and Wildlife Reserves	p. 27
Henry David Thoreau and Walden	p. 31
Aldo Leopold and Preserving Wilderness	p. 34
The Meaning of the Dust Bowl	p. 36
Public or Private? "The Tragedy of the Commons"	p. 40
The Chain of Being	p. 44
John Ray and the Classification of Plants	p. 45
Adaptation and the Great Chain of Being	p. 48
Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), and the Discovery of Parthenogenesis	p. 50
William Derham and the Interdependence of Organisms	p. 52
Linnaeus and Binomial Nomenclature	p. 54
René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (2683-1757), and Experiments with Nature	p. 55
What Is a Species?	p. 61
Geography of Living Things	p. 65
Eden, Noah, and Migration	p. 66
Johann Forster, Georg Forster, James Cook, and Voyages of Biological Exploration	p. 69
The Comte de Buffon and Geographic Isolation	p. 74
Karl Willdenow and Plant Distribution	p. 78
Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland, Exploring South America	p. 79
Charles Darwin and his "Entangled Bank"	p. 85
Darwin and the Beagle	p. 86
Evolution by Means of Natural Selection	p. 90
Population and Resources	p. 96
Thomas Malthus and An Essay on the Principle of Population	p. 98
Ernst Haeckel and "Oecology," the Study of the Household	p. 101
How "Oecology" Became "Ecology"	p. 104
Vladimir Vernadsky and the Discovery of the Biosphere	p. 106
James Lovelock and the Physiology of the Earth	p. 108
Gaia Hypothesis	p. 110
G. F. Gause and the Struggle for Existence	p. 112
The Growth of Ecology	p. 115
Abandoning the "Balance of Nature"	p. 116
Karl Möbius, His Oysters, and the Biocoenosis	p. 118
Stephen Forbes and "The Lake as a Microcosm"	p. 120
François-Alphonse Forel and the Inhabitants of Lac Léman	p. 123
Victor Hensen, Karl Brandt, and Studies of Sea Life	p. 126
Social Organization of Plants	p. 131
Oscar Drude and Plant Communities	p. 132
Josias Braun-Blanquet and Phytosociology	p. 133
The Zurich-Montpellier School	p. 135
Eugenius Warming and the Ecology of Plants	p. 136
American Ecology	p. 139
Charles C. Adams and the Survey of Isle Royale	p. 140
Henry Chandler Cowles and the Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan	p. 142
Frederic E. Clements, Plant Succession, and the Superorganism	p. 146
The Climax Concept	p. 149
Henry Allan Gleason and the Individualistic Concept	p. 150
Victor E. Shelford and Animal Communities	p. 152
Robert H. MacArthur and the Testing of Hypotheses	p. 153
Alfred J. Lotka, Vito Volterra, and the Mathematics of Relationships	p. 155
Raymond Lindeman, Energy and Efficiency	p. 158
The Odum Brothers and Systems Ecology	p. 160
British Ecology	p. 165
Arthur G. Tansley, Exploring British Plants	p. 166
Charles Elton, Regulating Populations	p. 170
Ecological Pyramids	p. 173
Ronald Aylmer Fisher and the Union of Evolution and Ecology	p. 174
Mendel's Laws	p. 175
The Rise of Scoiobiology	p. 178
William D. Hamilton and the Evolution of Behavior	p. 179
Edward O. Wilson and Sociobiology	p. 183
Ecology and Environmentalism	p. 186
Rachel Carson and Silent Spring	p. 187
The Rise of the Environmentalist Movement	p. 190
The Stockholm Conference and the United Nations Environment Programme	p. 192
Environmental Protection and Reducing Pollution	p. 196
Conclusion	p. 199
Glossary	p. 201
Further Resources	p. 208
Index	p. 214
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Although the science of ecology emerged only recently, it has a long ancestry. It begins in the 18thcentury with the story of Gilbert White, an English clergyman whose correspondence describing and commenting on the plants, animals, and events in his rural parish has become a classic. White was an observer, but already there was a long tradition of forest conservation, because trees have always been a major economic resource.Ecologytraces the origin of ecology and explains what it is and how it has developed over the years. Outlining the progress made so far in improving environmental quality, this new book describes the many contributions made by various scientists to this field, including English naturalist John Ray and Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. It also discusses significant events that have shaped ecology, including the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The final chapter of this full-color book documents the rise of the modern environmental movement.Chapters include:

• Gilbert White and His Letters to Naturalists
• The Beginning of Conservation
• The Chain of Being
• Geography of Living Things
• Charles Darwin and His "Entangled Bank"
• The Growth of Ecology
• Social Organization of Plants
• American Ecology
• British Ecology
• The Rise of Sociobiology
• Ecology and Environmentalism.

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Excerpted from Ecology: Plants, Animals, and the Environment by Michael Allaby
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.