Insect Ecology (eBook)

An Ecosystem Approach

Timothy D. Schowalter (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2006 | 3. Auflage
650 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-12-381352-7 (ISBN)

The third edition of Insect Ecology: An Ecosystem Approach provides a modern perspective of insect ecology that integrates two approaches traditionally used to study insect ecology: evolutionary and ecosystem. This integration substantially broadens the scope of insect ecology and contributes to prediction and resolution of the effects of current environmental changes, as these affect and are affected by insects. The third edition includes an updated and expanded synthesis of feedback and interactions between insects and their environment. This updated material and a new chapter on applications of insect ecology to social and environmental issues effectively demonstrates how evolutionary and ecosystem approaches complement each other, with the intent of stimulating further integration of these approaches in experiments that address insect roles in ecosystems. Effective management of ecosystem resources depends on evaluation of the complex, often complementary, effects of insects on ecosystem conditions, as well as insect responses to changing conditions. - Timely revision of a key reference on insect ecology - Full coverage of ecosystem structure and function balanced with essential background on evolutionary aspects - New chapter on applications to issues such as pest management, ecosystem restoration, invasive species and environmental changes - Case studies highlight practical and theoretical applications for topics covered in each chapter

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.

Front Cover 1
Insect Ecology An Ecosystem Approach
Copyright 5
Table of Contents 6
Preface 14
Chapter 1 - Overview 18
I - Scope Of Insect Ecology 20
II - Ecosystem Ecology 22
III - Environmental Change And Disturbance 27
IV - Ecosystem Approach To Insect Ecology 29
V - Scope Of This Book 29
Section I - Ecology of Individual Insects 32
Chapter 2 - Responses to Abiotic Conditions 34
Introduction 35
I - The Physical Template 35
II - Surviving Variable Abiotic Conditions 47
III - Factors Affecting Dispersal Behavior 58
IV - Responses To Anthropogenic Changes 62
V - Summary 67
Chapter 3 - Resource Acquisition 70
Introduction 71
I - Resource Quality 71
II - Resource Acceptability 96
III - Resource Availability 99
IV - Summary 110
Chapter 4 - Resource Allocation 112
Introduction 113
I - Resource Budget 113
II - Allocation Of Assimilated Resources 115
III - Efficiency Of Resource Use 135
IV - Summary 141
Section II - Population Ecology 144
Chapter 5 - Population Systems 146
Introduction 147
I - Population Structure 147
II - Population Processes 158
III - Life History Characteristics 165
IV - Parameter Estimation 167
V - Summary 172
Chapter 6 - Population Dynamics 174
Introduction 175
I - Population Fluctuation 175
II - Factors Affecting Population Size 180
III - Models Of Population Change 191
IV - Summary 199
Chapter 7 - Biogeography 202
Introduction 203
I. Geographic Distribution 204
III. Habitat Connectivity 220
Iv. Anthropogenic Effects On Spatial Dynamics 221
V. Models Of Spatial Dynamics 228
VI. Summary 231
Section III - Community Ecology 234
Chapter 8 - Species Interactions 236
INTRODUCTION 237
I. CLASSES OF INTERACTIONS 237
II. FACTORS AFFECTING INTERACTIONS 259
III. CONSEQUENCES OF INTERACTIONS 270
IV. SUMMARY 272
Chapter 9 - Community Structure 274
Introduction 275
I. Approaches To Describing Communities 275
II. Patterns Of Community Structure 292
III. Determinants Of Community Structure 299
IV. Summary 304
Chapter 10 - Community Dynamics 310
Introduction 311
I. Short-Term Change In Community Structure 311
II. Successional Change In Community Structure 314
III. Paleoecology 327
IV. Diversity Vs. Stability 333
V. Summary 338
Section IV - Ecosystem Level 342
Chapter 11 - Ecosystem Structure and Function 344
Introduction 346
I - Ecosystem Structure 346
II - Energy Flow 350
III - Biogeochemical Cycling 356
IV - Climate Modification 365
V - Ecosystem Modeling 370
VI - Summary 374
Chapter 12 - Herbivory 376
Introduction 377
I - Types And Patterns Of Herbivory 378
II - Effects Of Herbivory 389
III - Summary 412
Chapter 13 - Pollination, SeedPredation and SeedDispersal 414
Introduction 415
I - Types And Patterns Of Pollination 416
II - Effects Of Pollination 422
III - Types And Patterns Of Seed Predation And Dispersal 427
IV - Effects Of Seed Predation And Dispersal 434
V - Summary 437
Chapter 14 - Decomposition and Pedogenesis 438
INTRODUCTION 439
I. TYPES AND PATTERNS OF DETRITIVORY AND BURROWING 440
II. EFFECTS OF DETRITIVORY AND BURROWING 449
III. SUMMARY 468
Chapter 15 - Insects as Regulators of Ecosystem Processes 470
Introduction 471
I. Development Of The Concept 471
II. Ecosystems As Cybernetic Systems 476
III. Summary 493
Section V - Applications and Synthesis 496
Chapter 16 - Applications 498
Introduction 499
I. Ecosystem Services 500
A. Provisioning Services 500
II. Integrated Pest Management 508
III. Conservation/Restoration Ecology 521
IV. Invasive Species 525
V. Indicators Of Environmental Conditions 527
VI. Summary 528
Chapter 17 - Summary and Synthesis 530
Introduction 530
I. Summary 531
II. Synthesis 533
III. Critical Issues 534
IV. Conclusions 539
Bibliography 542
Author Index 624
Taxonomic Index 636
Subject Index 642

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

Insects are the dominant group of organisms on Earth, in terms of both taxonomic diversity (>50% of all described species) and ecological function (E. Wilson 1992) (Fig. 1.1). Insects represent the vast majority of species in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, and are important components of near-shore marine ecosystems, as well. This diversity of insect species represents an equivalent variety of adaptations to variable environmental conditions. Insects affect other species (including humans) and ecosystem parameters in a variety of ways. The capacity for rapid response to environmental change makes insects useful indicators of change, major engineers and potential regulators of ecosystem conditions, and frequent competitors with human demands for ecosystem resources or vectors of human and animal diseases.

Fig. 1.1

Distribution of described species within major taxonomic groups. Species numbers for insects, bacteria and fungi likely will increase greatly as these groups become better known.

Data from E. Wilson (1992).

Insects play critical roles in ecosystem function. They represent important food resources, predators, parasites or disease vectors for many other organisms, including humans, and they have the capacity to alter rates and directions of energy and matter fluxes (e.g., as herbivores, pollinators, detritivores, and predators) in ways that potentially affect global processes. In some ecosystems, insects and other arthropods represent the dominant pathways of energy and matter flow, and their biomass may exceed that of the more conspicuous vertebrates (e.g., Whitford 1986). Some species are capable of removing virtually all vegetation from a site. They affect, and are affected by, environmental issues as diverse as ecosystem health, biodiversity conservation, food production, genetically modified crops, disease epidemiology, frequency and severity of fire and other disturbances, control of invasive exotic species, land use, water and air pollution and climate change. The rapid change in frequencies of particular genes within insect populations, in response to changing environmental conditions, has provided some of the best confirmation of evolutionary principles.

Adaptation and explosive population growth in response to environmental changes, especially those resulting from anthropogenic activities, have the capacity to exacerbate or mitigate changes in ecosystem conditions and, perhaps, global processes. On the other hand, efforts to control insects have often had unintended and/or undesirable consequences for environmental quality and ecosystem services. Clearly, understanding insect ecology is critical for the effective management of environmental integrity and ecosystem services.

A primary challenge for insect ecologists is to place insect ecology in an ecosystem context, which represents insect effects on ecosystem structure and function, as well as the diversity of their adaptations and responses to changes in environmental conditions. Until relatively recently, insect ecologists have focused on the evolutionary significance of life history strategies and interactions with other species, especially as pollinators, herbivores and predators (Price 1997). This focus has yielded much valuable information about the ecology of individual species and species associations, demonstrated the function of particular genes, and provided the basis for pest management or recovery of threatened and endangered species. However, relatively little attention has been given to the important role of insects as ecosystem engineers, other than to their apparently negative effects on vegetation (especially commercial crop) or animal (especially human and livestock) dynamics.

Ecosystem ecology has advanced rapidly during the past 50 years. Major strides have been made in understanding how species interactions and environmental conditions affect rates of energy and nutrient fluxes in different ecosystem types, how these provide free ecosystem services (such as production of food and pharmaceutical compounds, pollination and air and water filtration), and how environmental conditions both affect and reflect community structure (e.g., Costanza et al. 1997, Daily 1997, H. Odum 1996). Interpreting the responses of a diverse community to multiple, interacting environmental factors in integrated ecosystems requires new approaches, such as multivariate statistical analysis and modeling techniques (e.g., Gutierrez 1996, Liebhold et al. 1993, Marcot et al. 2001). Such approaches often involve loss of detail, such as combination of species into phylogenetic or functional groupings. However, an ecosystem approach provides a framework for integrating insect ecology with changes in ecosystem structure and function, and for applying insect ecology to the understanding of ecosystem, landscape and global issues, such as climate change or sustainability of ecosystem services. Unfortunately, few ecosystem studies have involved insect ecologists and, therefore, have tended to under-represent insect responses and contributions to ecosystem changes.

I. Scope Of Insect Ecology

Insect ecology is the study of interactions between insects and their environment. Ecology is necessarily a multidisciplinary and integrative field of study, requiring the contributions of biologists, chemists, geologists, climatologists, hydrologists, soil scientists, geographers, mathematicians, and others, to fully understand the complex interactions among organisms and their environment (Fig. 1.2). Some of the most exciting recent advances in insect ecology have 1) demonstrated molecular mechanisms that control biochemical interactions among organisms and the selection of genomes best adapted to prevailing conditions and 2) clarified feedback mechanisms that control insect effects on (as well as responses to) environmental changes. Despite their small size, insects have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to regulate ecosystem processes that control local-to-global environmental conditions.

Fig. 1.2

Diagrammatic representation of feedbacks between various levels of ecological organization. Sizes of arrows are proportional to strength of interaction. Note that individual traits have a declining direct effect on higher organizational levels, but are affected strongly by feedback from all higher levels.

Insect ecology has both basic and applied goals. The basic goals are to improve our understanding and ability to model interactions and feedbacks, in order to predict changes in ecosystem and global conditions (e.g., Price 1997). The applied goals are to evaluate and manage the extent to which insect responses to environmental changes, including those resulting from anthropogenic activities, mitigate or exacerbate ecosystem change (e.g., Croft and Gutierrez 1991, Kogan 1998), especially in managed ecosystems. Some of the earliest and most valuable data on insect ecology has been contributed from studies designed to address factors affecting the population growth of “pests” (e.g., C. Riley 1878, 1880, 1883, 1885, 1893)

Research on insects and associated arthropods (e.g., spiders, mites, centipedes, millipedes, crustaceans) has been critical to development of the fundamental principles of ecology, such as evolution of social organization (Haldane 1932, W. Hamilton 1964, E. Wilson 1973), population dynamics (Coulson 1979, Morris 1969, Nicholson 1958, Varley and Gradwell 1970, Varley et al. 1973, Wellington et al. 1975), competition (Park 1948, 1954), plant–herbivore (I. Baldwin and Schultz 1983, Feeny 1969, Fraenkel 1953, Rosenthal and Janzen 1979) and predator–prey interaction (Nicholson and Bailey 1935), mutualism (Batra 1966, Bronstein 1998, Janzen 1966, Morgan 1968, Rickson 1971, 1977), island biogeography (Darlington 1943, MacArthur and Wilson 1967, Simberloff 1969, 1978), metapopulation ecology (Hanski 1989) and regulation of ecosystem processes, such as primary productivity, nutrient cycling and succession (Mattson and Addy 1975, J.C. Moore et al. 1988, Schowalter 1981, Seastedt 1984, Smalley 1960). Insects and other arthropods are small and easily manipulated subjects. Their rapid numerical responses to environmental changes facilitate statistical discrimination of responses and make them particularly useful models for experimental study.

Insects fill a variety of important ecological (functional) roles and affect virtually all ecosystem services. Many species are key pollinators. Pollinators and plants have adapted a variety of mechanisms for ensuring transfer of pollen, especially in tropical ecosystems where sparse distributions of many plant species require a high degree of pollinator fidelity to ensure...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	10.4.2006
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
	Technik
ISBN-10	0-12-381352-2 / 0123813522
ISBN-13	978-0-12-381352-7 / 9780123813527

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