Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Species distribution modelling is central to both fundamental and applied research in biogeography. Despite widespread use of models, there are still important conceptual ambiguities as well as biotic and algorithmic uncertainties that need to be investigated in order to increase confidence in model results. We identify and discuss five areas of enquiry that are of high importance for species distribution modelling: (1) clarification of the niche concept; (2) improved designs for sampling data for building models; (3) improved parameterization; (4) improved model selection and predictor contribution; and (5) improved model evaluation. The challenges discussed in this essay do not preclude the need for developments of other areas of research in this field. However, they are critical for allowing the science of species distribution modelling to move forward.

Five (or so) challenges for species distribution modelling

Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories

In this Chapter, we imagine a decision maker (or a group of experts) trying to establish or examine fair procedures to combine opinions about alternatives related to different points of view.

Multiple criteria decision making

A two-stage protocol for the design of conservation area networks which allows multiple constraint synchronization is described. During the first stage areas are selected to represent components of biodiversity up to speci- fied targets as economically as possible. The principal heuristic used is complementarity. This process results in a set of conservation area networks which comprise the feasible alternatives for the subsequent analysis. Dur- ing the second stage, multiple criteria (including spatial configuration crite- ria, vulnerability criteria, and socio-political criteria) are used, first to select the non-dominated feasible alternatives, and then to refine the non-domi- nated set further. This refinement is performed using a modification of the analytic hierarchy process. Resumen Describimos un protocolo de dos etapas para el diseno de una red de zonas que permita la sincronizacion de multiples limitantes. En la primera etapa, se eligen zonas representativas de la biodiversidad hasta obtener en la manera mas economica posible las metas especificadas. La complementacion es la heuristica usada. Este proceso genera una red de areas de conservacion que constituyen en alternativas viables para ser analizadas subsecuentemente. Durante la segunda etapa, usamos criterios multiple (incluyendo criterios de configuracion espacial, de vulnerabilidad, y politico-social) primero para seleccionar alternativas viables no dominantes, y luego para refinar aun mas la seleccion del grupo no dominante. Para lograr la seleccion usamos una variacion del proceso de jerarquia analitica. Abstract

/pdf/incorporating-multiple-criteria-into-the-design-of-2hctc96h6b.pdf

Incorporating Multiple Criteria into the Design of Conservation Area Networks

Rapid biodiversity assessment and conservation planning require the use of easily quantified and estimated surrogates for biodiversity. Using data sets from Quand Queensland, we applied four methods to assess the extent to which environmental surrogates can represent biodiversity components: (1) surrogacy graphs; (2) marginal representation plots; (3) Hamming distance function; and (4) Syrjala statistical test for spatial congruence. For Quwe used 719 faunal and floral species as biodiversity components, and for Queensland we used 2348 plant species. We used four climatic parameter types (annual mean temperature, minimum temperature during the coldest quarter, maximum temperature during the hottest quarter, and annual precipitation), along with slope, elevation, aspect, and soil types, as environmental surrogates. To study the effect of scale, we analyzed the data at seven spatial scales ranging from 0.01 ◦ to 0.10 ◦ longitude and latitude. At targeted representations of 10% for environmental surrogates and biodiversity components, all four methods indicated that using a full set of environmental surrogates systematically provided better results than selecting areas at random, usually ensuring that ≥90% of the biodiversity components achieved the 10% targets at scales coarser than 0.02 ◦ .T he performance of surrogates improved with coarser spatial resolutions. Thus, environmental surrogate sets are useful tools for biodiversity conservation planning. A recommended protocol for the use of such surrogates consists of randomly selecting a set of areas for which distributional data are available, identifying an optimal surrogate set based on these areas, and subsequently prioritizing places for conservation based on the optimal surrogate set.

/pdf/effectiveness-of-environmental-surrogates-for-the-selection-aiwym1b6j8.pdf

Effectiveness of Environmental Surrogates for the Selection of Conservation Area Networks

Springer-Verlag Gmbh Apr 2016, 2016. Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware This book is a critical survey of and guidebook to the literature on biological functions. It ties in with current debates and developments, and at the same time, it looks back on the state of discourse in naturalized teleology prior to the 1970s. It also presents three significant new proposals. First, it describes the generalized selected effects theory, which is one version of the selected effects theory, maintaining that the function of a trait consists in the activity that led to its differential persistence or reproduction in a population, and not merely its differential reproduction . Secondly, it advances 'within-discipline pluralism' (as opposed to between-discipline pluralism) a new form of function pluralism, which emphasizes the coexistence of function concepts within diverse biological sub-disciplines. Lastly, it provides a critical assessment of recent alternatives to the selected effects theory of function, namely, the weak etiological theory and the systemstheoretic theory. The book argues that, to the extent that functions purport to offer causal explanations for the existence of a trait, there are no viable alternatives to the selected effects view. The debate about biological functions is still as relevant and important to...

A Critical Overview of Biological Functions

The prioritization of places on the basis of biodiversity content is part of any systematic biodiversity conservation planning process. The place prioritization procedure implemented in the ResNet software package is described. This procedure is primarily based on the principles of rarity and complementarity. Application of the procedure is demonstrated with two analyses, one data set consisting of the distributions of termite genera in Namibia, and the other consisting of the distributions of bird species in the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands. The attributes that data sets should have for the effective and reliable application of such procedures are discussed. The procedure used here is compared to some others that are also currently in use.

Place prioritization for biodiversity content.

Surrogacy analysis consists of determining a set of biotic or environmental parameters which can be rapidly assessed in the field and reliably used to prioritize places for biodiversity conservation Whether adequate surrogate sets exist remains an open and relatively unexplored question though its solution is central to the aims of conservation biology This paper analyses the surrogacy problem by prioritizing places using surrogate lists and comparing these results with those obtained by using more comprehensive species lists More specifically, it explores (i) the possibility of using bird distributions, which are often easily available, as surrogates for species at risk (endangered and threatened species), which are presumed to be an important component of biodiversity; and (ii) the methodological question of how spatial scale influences surrogate success The data set analysed, from southern Quebec, is one of the most complete biotic data sets available at the regional scale Contrary to some previous analyses, the results obtained suggest that the surrogacy problem is potentially solvable

Justin Garson

Papers

Incorporating Multiple Criteria into the Design of Conservation Area Networks

Effectiveness of Environmental Surrogates for the Selection of Conservation Area Networks

A Critical Overview of Biological Functions

Place prioritization for biodiversity content.

Birds as surrogates for biodiversity: An analysis of a data set from southern Québec