Adaptive Herbivore Ecology: From Resources to Populations in Variable Environments

Description

The adaptation of herbivore behaviour to seasonal and locational variations in vegetation quantity and quality is inadequately modelled by conventional methods. Norman Owen-Smith innovatively links the principles of adaptive behaviour to their consequences for population dynamics and community ecology, through the application of a metaphysiological modelling approach. The main focus is on large mammalian herbivores occupying seasonally variable environments such as those characterised by African savannas, but applications to temperate zone ungulates are also included. Issues of habitat suitability, species coexistence, and population stability or instability are similarly investigated. The modelling approach accommodates various sources of environmental variability, in space and time, in a simple conceptual way and has the potential to be applied to other consumer-resource systems. This text highlights the crucial importance of adaptive consumer responses to environmental variability and is aimed particularly at academic researchers and graduate students in the field of ecology.

Norman Owen-Smith is Research Professor in African Ecology and heads the Centre for African Ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was awarded the Honorary Overseas Membership Award by the Ecological Society of America for his exceptional contribution to ecology. His previous book is Megaherbivores: The Influence of Very Large Body Size on Ecology (1988, 0521 36020X hardback and 0521 426375 paperback).

' ... an enjoyable and informative addition to the ecological literature. We are convinced others will find the book equally stimulating and useful.' Science '... an enjoyable and informative addition to the ecological literature.' Science Magazine