Aimed primarily at advanced graduate students and professional biologists, this book explores the degree to which animal*b1plant interactions are determined by plant and animal variability. Many of the patterns seen in natural communities appear to result from cascading effects up as well as down the trophic system. Variability among primary producers can influence animal and plant population quality and dynamics, community structure, and the evolution of animal*b1plant interations.

If it is true that science proceeds from a romantic through a scientific to a technological stage, then research on bird orientation is certainly on its move from its first to its second grade, and recent developments in radiotelemetry and satellite tracking of migrating birds might already indicate the advent of the third stage. At this juncture, Orientation in Birds is a timely account. Even though the study of animal migration in general, and bird navigation in particular, has produced a literature of impressive proportions, the threads provided by the plethora of research papers, review articles and symposiums volumes have not yet been knitted into a theoretical fabric. This is partly due to our still incomplete understanding of fundamen tal topics in avian navigation. The answer to the most intriguing question of how a bird displaced to "unknown" territory finds its way back home is as obscure now as it was a few decades ago. Whether and how birds solve this problem by using far ranging grid-maps or more local familiar-area maps, as has been proposed off and on, is still a matter of heated debates. These debates frequently center around provocative hypotheses - let alone the question about the physical (topographic, magnetic, infrasonic, olfactory) parameters which might constitute such maps.

In 1984, a conference called Wildlife 2000: Modeling habitat relationships of terrestrial vertebrates, was held at Stanford Sierra Camp at Fallen Leaf Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The conference was well-received, and the published volume (Verner, J. , M. L. Morrison, and C. J. Ralph, editors. 1986. Wildlife 2000: modeling habitat relationships of terrestrial vertebrates, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, USA) proved to be a landmark publication that received a book award by The Wildlife Society. Wildlife 2001: populations was a followup conference with emphasis on the other major biological field of wildlife conservation and management, populations. It was held on July 29-31, 1991, at the Oakland Airport Hilton Hotel in Oakland, California, in accordance with our intent that this conference have a much stronger international representation than did Wildlife 2000. The goal of the conference was to bring together an international group of specialists to address the state of the art in wildlife population dynamics, and set the agenda for future research and management on the threshold of the 21st century. The mix of specialists included workers in theoretical, as well as practical, aspects of wildlife conservation and management. Three general sessions covered methods, modelling, and conservation of threatened species.

4.1.1 Demographic significance Confined populations grow more rapidly than populations from which dispersal is permitted (Lidicker, 1975; Krebs, 1979; Tamarin et at., 1984), and demography in island populations where dispersal is restricted differs greatly from nearby mainland populations (Lidicker, 1973; Tamarin, 1977, 1978; Gliwicz, 1980), clearly demonstrating the demographic signi ficance of dispersal. The prevalence of dispersal in rapidly expanding populations is held to be the best evidence for presaturation dispersal. Because dispersal reduces the growth rate of source populations, it is generally believed that emigration is not balanced by immigration, and that mortality of emigrants occurs as a result of movement into a 'sink' of unfavourable habitat. If such dispersal is age- or sex-biased, the demo graphy of the population is markedly affected, as a consequence of differ ences in mortality in the dispersive sex or age class. Habitat heterogeneity consequently underlies this interpretation of dispersal and its demographic consequences, although the spatial variability of environments is rarely assessed in dispersal studies.

Humans live in large and extensive societies and spend much of their time interacting socially. Likewise, most other animals also interact socially. Social behaviour is of constant fascination to biologists and psychologists of many disciplines, from behavioural ecology to comparative biology and sociobiology. The two major approaches used to study social behaviour involve either the mechanism of behaviour - where it has come from and how it has evolved, or the function of the behaviour studied. With guest articles from leaders in the field, theoretical foundations along with recent advances are presented to give a truly multidisciplinary overview of social behaviour, for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Topics include aggression, communication, group living, sexual behaviour and co-operative breeding. With examples ranging from bacteria to social mammals and humans, a variety of research tools are used, including candidate gene approaches, quantitative genetics, neuro-endocrine studies, cost-benefit and phylogenetic analyses and evolutionary game theory.

Advances in the Study of Behavior, Volume 52, provides users with the latest insights in this ever-evolving field. Users will find new information on a variety of species, including ecological determinants of sex roles and female sexual selection, copulatory behavior and genital morphology in vertebrates, proximate and ultimate influences on social behavior, and more. Sample chapters in this release include Ecological determinants of sex roles and female sexual selection, Sensory information in social insects, How the material basis of colors impacts how they evolve, participate in behavioral interactions, and interface with other life history characters, Fiddler crabs, the Evolution of female coloration, and more. - Serves the increasing number of scientists engaged in the study of animal behavior - Makes another important contribution to the development of the field - Presents theoretical ideas and research to those studying animal behavior and related fields

How did rodent outbreaks in Germany help to end World War I? What caused the destructive outbreak of rodents in Oregon and California in the late 1950s, the large population outbreak of lemmings in Scandinavia in 2010, and the great abundance of field mice in Scotland in the spring of 2011? Population fluctuations, or outbreaks, of rodents constitute one of the classic problems of animal ecology, and in Population Fluctuations in Rodents, Charles J. Krebs sifts through the last eighty years of research to draw out exactly what we know about rodent outbreaks and what should be the agenda for future research. Krebs has synthesized the research in this area, focusing mainly on the voles and lemmings of the Northern Hemisphere—his primary area of expertise—but also referring to the literature on rats and mice. He covers the patterns of changes in reproduction and mortality and the mechanisms that cause these changes—including predation, disease, food shortage, and social behavior—and discusses how landscapes can affect population changes, methodically presenting the hypotheses related to each topic before determining whether or not the data supports them. He ends on an expansive note, by turning his gaze outward and discussing how the research on rodent populations can apply to other terrestrial mammals. Geared toward advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and practicing ecologists interested in rodent population studies, this book will also appeal to researchers seeking to manage rodent populations and to understand outbreaks in both natural and urban settings—or, conversely, to protect endangered species.

In Their Definitive Work on eastern mammals, John O. Whitaker, Jr., and William J. Hamilton, Jr., vividly convey their sheer delight at the variety and abundance of mammalian life. They have brought together a wealth of biological information and applied a biological subspecies concept to the mammals of the eastern United States.

The aim of Advances in the Study of Behavior remains as it has been since the series began: to serve the increasing number of scientists who are engaged in the study of animal behavior by presenting their theoretical ideas and research to their colleagues and to those in neighboring fields. We hope that the series will continue its "contribution to the development of the field", as its intended role was phrased in the Preface to the first volume in 1965. Since that time, traditional areas of animal behavior have achieved new vigor by the links they have formed with related fields and by the closer relationship that now exists between those studying animal and human subjects.