Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach

Front Cover
Academic Press, 2006 - Nature - 572 pages
1. Overview: scope of insect ecology - ecosystem ecology - environmental change and disturbance. Section I - Ecology of individual insects - 2. Reponses to abiotic conditions: I. Physical template; II. Surviving variable abiotic conditions; III. Factors affecting dispersal behavior; IV. Responses to anthropogenic changes. 3. Resource acquisition: I. Resource quality; II. Resource acceptability; III. Resource availability. 4. Resource allocation: I. resource budget; II. Allocation of assimilated resources; III. Efficiency of resource use. Section II - Population ecology: 5. Population systems: I. Population structure; II. Population processes; III. Life history characteristics; IV. Parameter estimation. 6. Population dynamics: I. Population fluctuation; II. Factors affecting population size; III. Models of population change. 7. Biogeography: I. Geographic distribution; II. Spatial dynamics of populations; III. Anthropogenic effects on spatial dynamics. Section III - Community ecology - 8. Species interactions: Classes of interactions; II. Factors affecting interactions; III. Consequences of interactions. 9. Community structures: I. Approaches to describing communities; II. Patterns of community structure; III. Determinants of community structure. 10. Community dynamic: I. Short-term change in community structure ; II. Successional change in community structure; III. Paleoecology; IV. Diversity versus stability. Section IV - Ecosystem level - 11. Ecosystem structure and function: I. Ecosystem structure; II. Energy flow; III. Biogeochemical cycling; IV. Climate modification; V. Ecosystem modeling. 12. Herbivory: I. Types and patterns of herbivory; II. Effects of herbivory. 13. Pollination, seed predation, and seed dispersal: I. Types and patterns of pollination; II. Effects of pollination; III. Types and patterns of seed predation and dispersal; IV. Effects os seed predation and dispersal. 14. Decomposition and pedogenesis: I. Types and patterns of detritivory and burrowing; II. Effects of detritivory and burrowing. 15. Insects as regulators of ecosystem processes: I. Development of the concept; II. Ecosystems as cybernetic system. Section V - Synthesis - 16. Synthesis - applications - critical issues.

Other editions - View all

About the author (2006)

Timothy D. Schowalter received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology from the University of Georgia in 1979. Since 1981, he has been a professor of entomology at Oregon State University, Corvallis, studying the effects of environmental changes, including natural and anthropogenic disturbances, on arthropod communities in temperate and tropical ecosystems, and effects of herbivores and detritivores on primary production, carbon flux, biogeochemical cycling. From 1992-93, he served as Program Director for Integrative and Theoretical Ecology at the National Science Foundation, where he was involved in developing global change and terrestrial ecosystem research initiatives at the federal level. He served as a U.S. delegate to international conventions to develop collaboration between U.S. Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and long term sites in Hungary and East Asia and the Pacific.

Bibliographic information