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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2009

Esa Ranta
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Per Lundberg
Affiliation:
Lunds Universitet, Sweden
Veijo Kaitala
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
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Summary

… there is nothing so practical as good theory.

Richard Feynman

The scope of this book is almost as wide as it gets. It touches upon a range of topics in ecology and evolution found in many modern textbooks. Instead of going into considerable depth in any one topic, we have chosen to cover quite a few in order to show that the same basic (and well-known) tools are applicable to a wide variety of ecological and evolutionary problems in population biology. However, this is also a narrow-minded book in the sense that it is very “theoretical,” i.e., full of mathematical expressions and computer simulation results. We believe ecology becomes a healthier science if it appreciates and acknowledges its strong quantitative and more rigorous nature. It is also narrow-minded in the sense that it reflects our own interests in population ecology without attempting to cover all aspects of the ecology of populations. Yet, the scope remains wide and possibly shallow. We believe that ecology and evolutionary biology have to become far more integrated than the fragmented and disparate impression they give today. We think that this can be done by going back to very simple first principles of births and deaths, immigration, and emigration. From those “simple” entities, we can derive virtually everything that plants and animals do in nature. To do so, however, requires a common thread of theory, the seeds of which at least we believe exist. Extensions of that theory will also be dealt with in this book.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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References

Burnham, K. P. and Anderson, D. R. 1998. Model Selection and Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caswell, H. 2001. Matrix Population Models, 2nd edn. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer.Google Scholar
Chatfield, C. 1999. The Analysis of Time Series: An Introduction, 5th edn. Boca Raton, Fla.: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Chiang, A. 1984. Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics. Singapore: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Edelstein-Keshet, L. 1988. Mathematical Models in Biology. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Hilborn, R. and Mangel, M. 1997. The Ecological Detective. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Roughgarden, J. 1998. Primer of Theoretical Ecology. New York: Pentice Hall.Google Scholar
Royama, T. 1992. Analytical Population Dynamics. New York: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Introduction
  • Esa Ranta, University of Helsinki, Per Lundberg, Lunds Universitet, Sweden, Veijo Kaitala, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • Book: Ecology of Populations
  • Online publication: 02 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610752.002
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  • Introduction
  • Esa Ranta, University of Helsinki, Per Lundberg, Lunds Universitet, Sweden, Veijo Kaitala, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • Book: Ecology of Populations
  • Online publication: 02 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610752.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Esa Ranta, University of Helsinki, Per Lundberg, Lunds Universitet, Sweden, Veijo Kaitala, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • Book: Ecology of Populations
  • Online publication: 02 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610752.002
Available formats
×