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JUST PUBLISHED

Stochastic Population Dynamics in Ecology and Conservation

Professor Russell Lande, Department of Biology, University of California San Diego, USA; Professor Steinar Engen, Mathematical Institute, NTNU Trondheim, Norway and Professor Bernt-Erik Saether, Zoology Institute, NTNU Trondheim, Norway.

“Lande Engen and Saether have produced THE seminal theoretical contribution to conservation biology – a brilliant exploration of stochastic influences on extinction and biodiversity. This is not a sterile, theoretical treatise; it is a well-written and certain-to-be classic melding of theory and real-world examples.”

Peter Kareiva, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy, USA

Random population fluctuations have fundamental consequences in both pure and applied ecology. This book introduces demographic and environmental stochasticity, and illustrates statistical methods for estimating them, using field data from bird and mammal populations and insect communities. The long-run growth rate of a population is explained and extended to age-structured populations. Diffusion approximations show how stochastic factors affect extinction in single populations and metapopulations. In populations with discrete annual reproduction, delayed density dependence can be estimated from time series of adult numbers combined with basic life history data.

The spatial scale of population fluctuations and local extinction risk depends on the scales of spatial environmental autocorrelation and individual dispersal, and the strength of density dependence. Stochastic dynamics and statistical uncertainty in population parameters are incorporated in population viability analysis and sustainable harvesting. Statistics of species diversity measures and species abundance distributions are described, with implications for rapid assessment of biodiversity. Methods are developed for partitioning species diversity into additive components. Analysis of stochastic community dynamics in space and time indicates that real communities are far from neutral.

Contents: 1. Demographic and Environmental Stochasticity; 2. Extinction Dynamics; 3. Age Structure; 4. Spatial Structure; 5. Population Viability Analysis; 6. Sustainable Harvesting; 7. Species Diversity; 8. Community Dynamics.

Oxford Series in Ecology & Evolution

March 2003, 224 pages

Hardback, 0-19-852524-9, £55.00 £44.00

Paperback, 0-19-852525-7, £27.50 £22.00

20% DISCOUNT

book.orders@oup.co.uk (quote code BES03A)