Macroecology

Macroecology

Macroecology is the subfield of ecology that deals with the study of relationships between organisms and their environment at large spatial scales to characterise and explain statistical patterns of abundance, distribution and diversity. The term was coined by James Brown of the University of New Mexico and Brian Maurer of Michigan State University in a 1989 paper in "Science".

Macroecology approaches the idea of studying ecosystems using a "top down" approach. It seeks understanding through the study of the properties of the system as a whole; Kevin Gaston and Tim Blackburn make the analogy to seeing the forest for the trees (literally).

Macroecology examines how global development in climate change affect wild life populations. Classic ecological questions amenable to study through the techniques of macroecology include questions of species richness, latitudinal gradients in species diversity, the species-area curve, range size, body size, and species abundance. For example, the relationship between abundance and range size (why species that maintain large local population sizes tend to be widely distributed, while species that are less abundant tend to have restricted ranges) has received much attention.

References

*Brown, J.H and B.A. Maurer. 1989. Macroecology: The division of food and space among species on continents. "Science" 243: 1145-1150

*Brown, J.H. 2000. "Macroecology". University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-07614-8

*Gaston, K.J. and T.M. Blackburn. 2000. "Pattern and Process in Macroecology". Blackwell Science. ISBN 0-632-05653-3

External links

* [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1466-822X&site=1 "Global Ecology and Biogeography"] - an important journal of macroecology
* [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0906-7590&site=1 "Ecography"] - an important journal of broad spatial and temporal patterns in ecology
* [http://www.evolutionary-ecology.com/ "Evolutionary Ecology Research"] - a journal of macroecology


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • macroecology — noun The study of spatially large ecosystems …   Wiktionary

  • Occupancy-abundance relationship — In macroecology, the occupancy abundance (O A) relationship is the relationship between the abundance of species and the size of their ranges within a region. This relationship is perhaps one of the most well documented relationships in… …   Wikipedia

  • Latitudinal gradients in species diversity — The pattern= The increase in species richness or biodiversity that occurs from the poles to the tropics, often referred to as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity, is one of the most widely recognized patterns in ecology. Put another way …   Wikipedia

  • Makroökologie — Die Verschiebung des Brutgebietes von Vögeln, wie dem Löffler, untersucht die Makroökologie Die Makroökologie ist ein Arbeitsgebiet der Ökologie, die die Muster und Mechanismen erforscht, welche auf großen räumlichen und zeitlichen Maßstäben über …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Phytogeography — Phytogeography, also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species, or more generally, plants. Phytogeography is concerned with all aspects of plant distribution, from the… …   Wikipedia

  • James Brown (ecologist) — Infobox Scientist name = James Hemphill Brown box width = image width = caption = birth date = birth date and age|1942|9|25|mf=y birth place = U.S. death date = death place = residence = United States citizenship = American nationality =… …   Wikipedia

  • Ecology (disciplines) — Ecology is a broad biological science and can thus be divided into many sub disciplines using various criteria. For example, one such categorization, based on overall complexity (from the least complex to the most), is:* Behavioral ecology, which …   Wikipedia

  • Niche apportionment models — Mechanistic models for niche apportionment are biological models used to explain relative species abundance distributions. These models describe how species break up resource pool in multi dimensional space, determining the distribution of… …   Wikipedia

  • Cambrian — For other uses, see Cambrian (disambiguation). Cambrian Period 542–488.3 million years ago …   Wikipedia

  • Carnivore — Carnivorism redirects here. For the diet, see No carbohydrate diet. For other uses, see Carnivore (disambiguation). Lions are voracious carnivores; they require up to seven kilograms (15 lbs) of meat per day. A major component of their diet is… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”