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

Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Metabolic rate, the rate at which organisms take up, transform, and expend energy and materials, is the most fundamental biological rate. We have developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature. Metabolic theory predicts how metabolic rate, by setting the rates of resource uptake from the environment and resource allocation to survival, growth, and reproduction, controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere. Examples include: (1) life history attributes, including devel- opment rate, mortality rate, age at maturity, life span, and population growth rate; (2) population interactions, including carrying capacity, rates of competition and predation, and patterns of species diversity; and (3) ecosystem processes, including rates of biomass production and respiration and patterns of trophic dynamics. Data compiled from the ecological literature strongly support the theoretical predictions. Even- tually, metabolic theory may provide a conceptual foundation for much of ecology, just as genetic theory provides a foundation for much of evolutionary biology.

/pdf/toward-a-metabolic-theory-of-ecology-1dxmg8xr3n.pdf

Toward a metabolic theory of ecology

When a person looks at an object while exploring it with their hand, vision and touch both provide information for estimating the properties of the object. Vision frequently dominates the integrated visual-haptic percept, for example when judging size, shape or position, but in some circumstances the percept is clearly affected by haptics. Here we propose that a general principle, which minimizes variance in the final estimate, determines the degree to which vision or haptics dominates. This principle is realized by using maximum-likelihood estimation to combine the inputs. To investigate cue combination quantitatively, we first measured the variances associated with visual and haptic estimation of height. We then used these measurements to construct a maximum-likelihood integrator. This model behaved very similarly to humans in a visual-haptic task. Thus, the nervous system seems to combine visual and haptic information in a fashion that is similar to a maximum-likelihood integrator. Visual dominance occurs when the variance associated with visual estimation is lower than that associated with haptic estimation.

Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion.

One of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet is the accumulation and fragmentation of plastics. Within just a few decades since mass production of plastic...

/pdf/accumulation-and-fragmentation-of-plastic-debris-in-global-2ayi1pcd8z.pdf

Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments.

ilbstract. Autocorrelation is a very general statistical property of ecological variables observed across geographic space; its most common forms are patches and gradients. Spatial autocorrelation. which comes either from the physical forcing of environmental variables or from community processes, presents a problem for statistical testing because autocorrelated data violate the assumption of independence of most standard statistical procedures. The paper discusses first how autocorrelation in ecological variables can be described and measured. with emphasis on mapping techniques. Then. proper statistical testing in the presence of autocorrelation is briefly discussed. Finally. ways are presented of explicitly introducing spatial structures into ecological models. Two approaches are proposed: in the raw-data approach, the spatial structure takes the form of a polynomial of the x and .v geographic coordinates of the sampling stations; in the matrix approach. the spatial structure is introduced in the form of a geographic distance matrix among locations. These two approaches are compared in the concluding section. A table provides a list of computer programs available for spatial analysis.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1939924.pdf

Spatial Autocorrelation: Trouble or New Paradigm?

Responses of deposit-feeding spionid polychaetes to dissolved chemical cues

Chemical reactor theory under the premise of maximization of net rate of nutrient absorption has been used to predict throughput time, τ, of digesta in animals. Animals that feed on hexoses, such as many vertebrate fruit and nectar eaters, are of central interest in testing reactor theory because they use no hydrolysis before absorption and, hence, should provide valuable, simplified test cases. Graphical methods based on batch reactors and used to make such predictions in the past can give optimal gut throughput times (τopt) identical with predictions from continuous plug‐flow reactor models derived here: in animals with passive, linear uptake alone, τopt should decline as hexose concentration of food increases. If saturating active uptake is involved, however, a minimum in τopt (maximum in ingestion rate) is predicted at intermediate hexose concentration, the exact location of this minimum depending on costs of ingestion as well as on uptake kinetics. That is, τopt first falls to a minimum with...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/316695

The tau of continuous feeding on simple foods.

Target species for deep-sea studies in ecology, genetics, and physiology

As many of the contributions to this volume show, consideration of deposit feeding leads quickly to questions of digestion. There are spectacular variations in feeding rate both among species (Cammen, 1980) and within individuals (Taghon and Jumars, 1984), respectively demanding digestive diversity and flexibility. Intuitively, it seems likely that organisms eating sand and mud might more often be limited by processing ability and food quality — i.e., by the rate at which digestive products can be formed — than by acquisition rate. When one looks for theoretical guidance to design measurements and experiments regarding this interspecific diversity and intraspecific flexibility, comparatively little is available (Milton, 1981; Sibly, 1981; Taghon, 1981; Troyer, 1984). Theories of how an organism should forage and what it should ingest are abundant, but comparably general optimization approaches to predict how it ought to digest what it captures are not. The need is clear for animals in general and for deposit feeders in particular: Variations in fitness can result from variations in digestion just as readily as they can from differences in acquisition.

Peter A. Jumars

Papers

Responses of deposit-feeding spionid polychaetes to dissolved chemical cues

The tau of continuous feeding on simple foods.

Target species for deep-sea studies in ecology, genetics, and physiology

Digestion Theory Applied to Deposit Feeding

Statistical re-analysis for size dependency in deep-sea mixing