Michael Begon - Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 4
3. Chapter 8
4. Chapter 10
5. Chapter 11
6. Chapter 13
7. Chapter 14
8. Chapter 15
9. Chapter 18
10. Chapter 19
11. Chapter 20
12. Chapter 21
13. Chapter 22

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22

MICHAEL BEGON

University of Liverpool
Liverpool, UK

COLIN R. TOWNSEND

University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand

FIFTH EDITION

This fifth edition first published 2021 2021 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Edition History
4e, Wiley, 2006; 3e, Wiley, 1996; 2e, Wiley 1990; 1e, Wiley, 1986

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

The right of Michael Begon and Colin R. Townsend to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Begon, Michael, author. | Townsend, Colin R., author.
Title: Ecology : from individuals to ecosystems / Michael Begon, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, Colin Townsend, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Description: Fifth edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020012775 (print) | LCCN 2020012776 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119279358 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119279372 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119279310 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Ecology.
Classification: LCC QH541 .B415 2020 (print) | LCC QH541 (ebook) | DDC 577dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012775
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012776

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Credit: Decorators painting wall Dougal Waters/Getty Images
Panel of Native American Newspaper Rock petroglyphs milehightraveler/Getty Image

This book is dedicated to our families, and especially to our children and grandchildren,
who will inherit the ecosystems we hand on to them
by Mike to Linda, Jessica, Robert, Carl, Ria and Erica,
and by Colin to Dominic, Brennan, Amelie and Ella

This book is about the distribution and abundance of living organisms, and about the physical, chemical and especially the biological features and interactions that determine these distributions and abundances.

Unlike some other sciences, the subject matter of ecology is apparent to everybody: most people have observed and pondered the natural world. In this sense most people are ecologists of sorts. But ecology is not an easy science. It must deal explicitly with three separate levels of the biological hierarchy the individual organisms, the populations of organisms, and the communities of populations. Whats more, as we shall see, it cant ignore the detailed biology of individuals, or the pervading influences of historical, evolutionary and geological events. It feeds on advances in our knowledge of biochemistry, behaviour, climatology, plate tectonics and so on, but it feeds back to our understanding of vast areas of biology too. One of the fathers of modern evolutionary biology, T. H. Dobzhansky famously claimed, in the middle of the 20th century, that Nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution. But equally, very little in evolution, and hence in biology as a whole, makes sense, except in the light of ecology.

Ecology, too, has the distinction of being peculiarly confronted with uniqueness: millions of different species, countless billions of genetically distinct individuals, all living and interacting in a varied and everchanging world. Imagine doing chemistry if water molecules were not precisely the same, always and everywhere or physics if the speed of light was different at different field sites. The challenge for ecologists, therefore, is to seek patterns and predictions in a way that recognises this uniqueness and complexity, rather than being swamped by it. The mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whiteheads advice for scientists, offered 100 years ago, is never more apposite than when applied to ecology: Seek simplicity and distrust it.

This fifth edition comes fully 14 years after its immediate predecessor and 34 years after the first edition. Much has changed over that time in ecology, in the world around us, and also, unsurprisingly, in us authors. The first edition had a cave painting as its cover, which we justified in the Preface by arguing that ecology, if not the oldest profession, is probably the oldest science, since the most primitive humans had to understand, as a matter of necessity, the dynamics of the environment in which they lived. We pursued that cave painting theme for two further editions, but for the fourth edition, replaced it with its modern equivalent, urban graffiti. This captured the idea that we, as a species, are still driven to broadcast our feelings graphically and publicly, but the cave paintings celebration of natures bounty had been replaced by an impassioned plea for its protection. Now, 14 years on, the image on our cover, and its message, are darker and more desperate. Instead of focusing on those who are pleading, on natures behalf, for respect, this time we shine our light on man the destroyer obliterating the heritage in our cave painting as he is threatening our natural heritage (the inspiration coming from graffiti artist Banksy, who used a similar idea in an art work involving a water blaster). The ecosystem on our front cover is still there but it is disappearing.