Integrating Ecology and Evolution in a Spatial Context: 14th Special Symposium of the British Ecological Society

by Jonathan Silvertown (Editor)

The profound consequences of the deceptively obvious statement that plants stand still but their genes don't are only just becoming clear. In this volume, an international team of authors, experts in the field of population biology, aim to advance our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes by integrating them within a common frame of reference - space. Processes operating at three different spatial scales are examined; that of the population, the metapopulation and geographical range. Themes that recur at these different scales include spatial population dynamics, population genetics at boundaries, the imprint of spatial population dynamics upon genetic structure, adaptation, evolution of mating systems and the consequences of population genetics for ecological dynamics. Whilst the focus is largely on plants, all of the questions addressed in this volume are equally applicable to animals and several authors write about both. It will be a valuable tool for researchers and advanced students, not only in this field, but also evolutionary biology and resource management.

Hardcover

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Jonathan was born and raised in London and his schoolboy nature watching was done while taking furtive short-cuts on cross-country runs across Hampstead Heath. He made much faster progress when running back from Hampstead’s bookshops in time to beat the end of lunch hour bell. His first scientific paper was submitted with an epigraph by Walter de la Mare which the editor removed with a snide comment, and ever since Jonathan has done his best to hide the poetry in his scientific prose. In Orchard Invisible the poet emerges barefaced in the very first line with the words: “Seeds have a mirrored life, the original in nature and another reflected in literature and the imagination.”