Ecological orbits : how planets move and populations grow / / Lev Ginzburg, Mark Colyvan

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910966104503321
• Autore: Ginzburg Lev R
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 9780198037545; 0198037546
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: xv, 166 p. : ill
• Altri autori (Persone): ColyvanMark
• Disciplina: 577.8/8
• Soggetti: Population biology; Ecology
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-160) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Intro -- Contents -- 1 On Earth as It Is in the Heavens -- 1.1 How Planets Move -- 1.2 How Populations Grow -- 1.3 Metaphors and the Language of Science -- 1.4 Inertial Population Growth -- 2 Does Ecology Have Laws? -- 2.1 Ecological Allometries -- 2.2 Kepler's Laws -- 2.3 What Is a Law of Nature? -- 2.4 Laws in Ecology -- 3 Equilibrium and Accelerated Death -- 3.1 Accelerated Death -- 3.2 Galileo and Falling Bodies -- 3.3 The Slobodkin Experiment -- 3.4 Falling Bodies and Dying Populations -- 3.5 The Meaning of Abundance Equilibrium -- 3.6 The Damuth Allometry -- 3.7 A Harder Question -- 4 The Maternal Effect Hypothesis -- 4.1 Inertial Growth and the Maternal Effect -- 4.2 The Missing Periods -- 4.3 The Calder Allometry -- 4.4 The Eigenperiod Hypothesis -- 4.5 What Can Be Done in the Laboratory -- 5 Predator-Prey Interactions and the Period of Cycling -- 5.1 An Alternative Limit Myth -- 5.2 Prey-Dependent versus Ratio-Dependent Models -- 5.3 The Fallacy of Instantism -- 5.4 Why Period Travels Bottom Up -- 5.5 Competing Views on Causes and Cyclicity -- 6 Inertial Growth -- 6.1 The Implicit Inertial-Growth Model -- 6.2 Parametric Specification -- 6.3 Malthusian Invariancy -- 6.4 What Is and What Is Not Analogous -- 7 Practical Consequences -- 7.1 Theoretical and Applied Ecology -- 7.2 Managing Inertial Populations -- 7.3 Rates of Evolution -- 7.4 Risk Analysis -- 7.5 The Moral -- 8 Shadows on the Wall -- 8.1 Plato's Cave -- 8.2 Evidence and Aesthetics ; -- 8.3 Overfitting -- 8.4 A Simplified Picture of Population Ecology -- Appendix A: Notes and Further Reading -- Appendix B: Essential Features of the Maternal Effect Model -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- Z.
• Sommario/riassunto: Preface1. On Earth as it is in the Heavens2. Does Ecology Have Laws?3. Equilibrium and Accelerated Death4. The Maternal E_ect Hypothesis5. Predator-Prey Interactions and the Period of Cycling6. Inertial Growth7. Practical Consequences8. Shadows on the WallA Notes and Further ReadingB Essential Features of the Maternal Effect ModelC AppreciationsBibliographyIndex.