Insect Ecology
An Ecosystem Approach
- 5th Edition - February 24, 2022
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Author: Timothy D. Schowalter
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 8 5 6 7 3 - 7
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 8 5 6 7 4 - 4
Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fifth Edition provides the most updated and comprehensive knowledge of the diversity of insect responses to environmental changes and their… Read more
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Request a sales quoteInsect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fifth Edition provides the most updated and comprehensive knowledge of the diversity of insect responses to environmental changes and their effects on ecosystem properties and services.
Written by an expert in the field, this book addresses ways in which insect morphology, physiology and behavior tailor their adaptation to particular environmental conditions, how those adaptations affect their responses to environmental changes, and how their responses affect ecosystem properties and the ecosystem services on which humans depend for survival. This edition also addresses recent reports of global declines in insect abundance and how these declines could affect human interests.
Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach, Fifth Edition is an important resource for researchers, entomologists, ecologists, pest managers and conservationists who want to understand insect ecology and to manage insects in ways that sustain the delivery of ecosystem services. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students may also find this as a useful resource for entomology and specifically insect ecology courses.
- The only insect ecology text that emphasizes insect effects on ecosystem properties and services, as well as evolutionary adaptations to environmental conditions
- Includes new material on long-term trends in insect abundance, addressing the so-called “insect apocalypse”
- Offers crucial updates on mechanisms by which insects affect, and potentially regulate, ecosystem structure and function
- Applies ecological principles to improved management of insects for the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services
Professional entomologists, ecologists and others with interest in how insects engineer our global ecosystem, as well as how they respond to environmental changes. Advanced undergraduate and graduate students in insect ecology
Chapter 1. Overview
I. Scope of Insect Ecology
II. Ecosystem Ecology
A. Ecosystem Complexity
B. The Hierarchy of Subsystems
C. Regulation
III. Environmental Change and Disturbance
IV. Ecosystem Approach to Insect Ecology
V. Scope of This Book
SECTION I: Ecology of Individual Insects
Chapter 2. Responses to Abiotic Conditions
New: new material on insect functional attributes that affect responses to and effects on ecosystem properties
I. The Physical Template
A. Biomes
B. Environmental Variation
C. Disturbances
II. Surviving Variable Abiotic Conditions
A. Thermoregulation
B. Water Balance
C. Air and Water Chemistry
D. Other Abiotic Factors
III. Factors Affecting Dispersal Behavior
A. Life History Strategy
B. Crowding
C. Nutritional Status
D. Habitat and Resource Conditions
E. Mechanism of Dispersal
IV. Responses to Anthropogenic Changes
New: evaluation of recent reports of insect declines and implications for ecosystems
V. Summary
Chapter 3. Resource Acquisition
I. Resource Quality
A. Resource Requirements
B. Variation in Food Quality
C. Plant Chemical Defenses
D. Arthropod Defenses
E. Variation in Resource Quality
F. Mechanisms for Exploiting Variable Resource Quality
II. Resource Acceptability
III. Resource Availability
A. Discovering Suitable Resources
B. Orientation
C. Learning
IV. Summary
Chapter 4. Resource Allocation
I. Resource Budget
II. Allocation of Assimilated Resources
A. Foraging and Dispersal Behavior
B. Mating Behavior
C. Reproductive and Social Behavior
D. Competitive, Defensive and Mutualistic Behavior
III. Efficiency of Resource Use
A. Factors Affecting Efficiency
B. Tradeoffs
IV. Summary
SECTION II: Population Ecology
Chapter 5. Population Systems
I. Population Structure
A. Density
B. Dispersion
C. Metapopulation Structure
D. Age Structure
E. Sex Ratio
F. Genetic Composition
G. Social Insects
II. Population Processes
A. Natality
B. Mortality
C. Dispersal
III. Life History Characteristics
IV. Parameter Estimation
V. Summary
Chapter 6. Population Dynamics
I. Population Fluctuation
II. Factors Affecting Population Size
A. Density Independent Factors
B. Density Dependent Factors
C. Regulatory Mechanisms
III. Models of Population Change
A. Exponential and Geometric Models
B. Logistic Model
C. Complex Models
D. Computerized Models
E. Model Evaluation
New: evaluation of reports of insect declines
IV. Summary
Chapter 7. Biogeography
I. Geographic Distribution
A. Global Patterns
B. Regional Patterns
C. Island Biogeography
D. Landscape and Stream Continuum Patterns
II. Spatial Dynamics of Populations
A. Expanding Populations
B. Metapopulation Dynamics
III. Habitat Connectivity
IV. Anthropogenic Effects on Spatial Dynamics
A. Fragmentation
B. Disturbances to Aquatic Ecosystems
C. Species Introductions
V. Models of Spatial Dynamics
VI. Summary
SECTION III: Community Ecology
Chapter 8. Species Interactions
New: material on fitness costs of interactions
I. Classes of Interactions
A. Competition
B. Predation
C. Symbiosis
II. Factors Affecting Interactions
A. Abiotic Conditions
B. Resource Availability and Distribution
C. Indirect Effects of Other Species
III. Consequences of Interactions
A. Population Regulation
B. Community Regulation
IV. Summary
Chapter 9. Community Structure
I. Approaches to Describing Communities
A. Species Diversity
B. Species Interactions
C. Functional Organization
II. Patterns of Community Structure
A. Global Patterns
B. Biome and Landscape Patterns
III. Determinants of Community Structure
A. Habitat Area and Complexity
B. Habitat Stability
C. Resource Availability
D. Species Interactions
IV. Summary
Chapter 10. Community Dynamics
I. Short-term Change in Community Structure
II. Successional Change in Community Structure
A. Patterns of Succession
B. Factors Affecting Succession
C. Models of Succession
III. Paleoecology
IV. Diversity vs. Stability
A. Components of Stability
B. Stability of Community Variables
V. Summary
SECTION IV: Ecosystem Level
Chapter 11. Ecosystem Structure and Function
New: potential effects of insect declines on ecosystem properties and delivery of services
I. Ecosystem Structure
A. Trophic Structure
B. Spatial Variability
II. Energy Flow
A. Primary Productivity
B. Secondary Productivity
C. Energy Budgets
III. Biogeochemical Cycling
A. Abiotic and Biotic Pools
B. Major Cycles
C. Factors Influencing Cycling Processes
IV. Climate Modification
V. Ecosystem Modeling
VI. Summary
Chapter 12. Herbivory
New: new material on herbivore effects on ecosystem processes, especially carbon flux and climate modification.
I. Types and Patterns of Herbivory
A. Herbivore Functional Groups
B. Measurement of Herbivory
C. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Herbivory
II. Effects of Herbivory
A. Plant Productivity, Survival and Growth Form
B. Community Dynamics
C. Water and Nutrient Fluxes
D. Effects on Climate and Disturbance Regime
III. Summary
Chapter 13. Pollination, Seed Predation and Seed Dispersal
New: potential effects of global declines in pollinator abundance and pollination services
I. Types and Patterns of Pollination
A. Pollinator Functional Groups
B. Measurement of Pollination
C. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Pollination
II. Effects of Pollination
III. Types and Patterns of Seed Predation and Dispersal
A. Seed Predator and Disperser Functional Groups
B. Measurement of Seed Production and Dispersal
C. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Seed Predation and Dispersal
IV. Effects of Seed Predation and Dispersal
V. Summary
Chapter 14. Decomposition and Pedogenesis
I. Types and Patterns of Detritivory and Burrowing
A. Detritivore and Burrower Functional Groups
B. Measurement of Detritivory, Burrowing and Decomposition Rates
C. Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Processing of Detritus and Soil
II. Effects of Detritivory and Burrowing
A. Decomposition and Mineralization
B. Soil Structure, Fertility and Infiltration
C. Primary Production and Vegetation Dynamics
III. Summary
Chapter 15. Insects as Regulators of Ecosystem Processes
New: new material on potential roles of insects in stabilizing ecosystem conditions
I. Development of the Concept
II. Ecosystems as Cybernetic Systems
A. Properties of Cybernetic Systems
B. Ecosystem Homeostasis
C. Definition of Stability
D. Regulation of NPP by Biodiversity
E. Regulation of NPP by Insects
III. Summary
Section V. Applications and Synthesis
Chapter 16. Insects and Ecosystem Services
I. Insect Effects on Ecosystem Services
A. Provisioning Services
B. Cultural Services
C. Supporting Services
D. Regulating Services
II. Valuation of Insect Effects on Ecosystem Services
III. Managing for Sustainability of Ecosystem Services
New: increased emphasis on threats to ecosystem services from mismanagement of insect populations
IV. Summary
Chapter 17. Applications to Pest Management and Conservation
I. Pest Management
A. Crop and Forest “Pests”
B. Integrated Pest Management
C. Medical and Veterinary “Pests”
D. Urban “Pests”
II. Conservation/restoration Ecology
A. Protecting essential insect roles in restored ecosystems
B. Managing invasive species
C. Using Insects as Indicators of Environmental Conditions
IV. Summary
Chapter 18. Synthesis
I. Summary
II. Synthesis
III. Critical Issues
IV. Conclusions
- Edition: 5
- Published: February 24, 2022
- No. of pages (Hardback): 942
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Language: English
- Hardback ISBN: 9780323856737
- eBook ISBN: 9780323856744
TS
Timothy D. Schowalter
Timothy D. Schowalter received his Ph.D. degree in Entomology from the University of Georgia in 1979. He is currently a Professor of Entomology at Louisiana State University, where he also served as the department head until 2015. Previously, he was a professor of entomology at Oregon State University, Corvallis. Dr. Schowalter 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 also 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.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Entomology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USARead Insect Ecology on ScienceDirect