Robert May is Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. His research, first at Princeton University and since 1988 at Oxford University, has dealt with the ways in which plant and animal populations - either singly or in interacting communities - change over time, especially in response to natural or human-created disturbance. His work on chaos, on how infectious diseases can influence the numerical abundance or geographical distribution of populations (including applications to humans and HIV/AIDS), on estimating species' numbers and rates of extinction, and more generally on conservation biology have been recognized by several major International Prizes (Crafoord, Balzan, Blue Planet). He has been Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government (1995-2000), President of the Royal Society (2000-2005), and in 2001 was one of the first appointees to the UK Upper House by the Independent House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Angela McLean is Professor of Mathematical Biology in the Department of Zoology and Director of the Institute for Emergent Infections of Humans in the James Martin 21st Century School. Her research interests lie in the use of mathematical models to aid our understanding of the evolution and spread of infectious agents. This encompasses modelling of the dynamics of infections and immune responses within individual hosts as well as models of the spread of infections from one host to another.

本書綜閤瞭近30年來理論生態學領域的重大進步及其在實際問題中的應用。前半部分主要介紹基本生態學原理，例如閤作行為的進化機製，單一物種種群動力學及集閤種群空間動力學，捕食者一獵物係統，植物種群動力學，種間競爭及物種的共存，生態群落的多樣性和穩定性，以及群落模式等。後半部分將理論和實際聯係在一起，先後介紹瞭種群動力學在傳染病學、農業生産、捕撈業、物種保護以及應對全球氣候變化中的應用。

本書突齣瞭數學、物理學方法在生態學領域的應用，嚮讀者呈現瞭這一學科中最為基本的問題及其研究方法、研究現狀和研究動嚮。

本書可供具有一定生態學基礎的研究生、博士生以及從事相關研究的人員使用。

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目錄

緻謝

參編者名單

1.緒論

2.閤作的進化：閤作的五種機製

3.單一物種種群動力學(single-species dynamics)

4.集閤種群空間動力學

5.捕食者－獵物間相互作用

6.植物種群動力學

7.種間競爭和物種的共存

8.群落多樣性和穩定性

9.群落的模式

10.傳染病動力學

11.捕撈業(fisheries)

12.雙重綠色革命：生態學和糧食生産

13.保護生物學：未解決的問題及其對政策的影響

14.氣候變化和保護生物學

15.尚未解決的問題及其重要性

參考文獻

索引

譯後記