Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
Synthesis and Perspectives
ISBN13: 9780198515708ISBN10: 0198515707
Hardback,
312 pages
Also available:
Paperback
Oct 2002,
In Stock
Price:
$150.00 (06)Description
The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic areas in contemporary ecology. Increasing domination of ecosystems by humans is steadily transforming them into depauperate systems. How will this loss of biodiversity affect the functioning and stability of natural and managed ecosystems? This volume provides the first comprehensive and balanced coverage of recent empirical and theoretical research on this question. It reviews the evidence, provides bases for the resolution of the debate that has divided scientists on these issues, and offers perspectives on how current knowledge can be extended to other ecosystems, other organisms and other spatial and temporal scales. It cuts across the traditional division between community ecology and ecosystem ecology, and announces a new ecological synthesis in which the dynamics of biological diversity and the biogeochemical functioning of the Earth system are merged.Features
- The first synthesis of the current debate on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
- One of the hottest and most controversial topics in ecology and environmental science, and likely to remain so for several years
- Contributions from the leading names in the field
About the Author(s)
Edited by Michel Loreau, Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, Shahid Naeem, Department of Zoology, University of Washington, and Pablo Inchausti, Laboratoire d'Ecologie, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
