Natural Systems: The Organisation of Life

Organised into four sections, this text discusses the organisation of the living world.

Links Ecology, Biodiversity and Biogeography Bridges modern and conventional Ecology Builds sequentially from the concept and importance of species, through patterns of diversity to help consider global patterns of biogeography Uses real data sets to help train in essential skills

Preface xv

Acknowledgements xix

Abbreviations xxi

1 Introduction: defining nature 1

1.1 How little we know 1

1.2 Pressing questions 2

1.3 The hierarchy of nature 2

1.4 Biodiversity 4

1.5 Myths to bust 4

1.6 Further information 5

1.6.1 Recommended reading 5

References 5

Part I: Species

2 What is a species? 9

2.1 The big question 9

2.2 Species concepts 10

2.2.1 Nominalistic 10

2.2.2 Morphological 11

2.2.3 Biological 12

2.2.4 Phylogenetic 13

2.2.5 Genetic 14

2.3 Solving the riddle 16

2.4 Coda: Species richness 17

2.5 Conclusions 17

2.5.1 Recommended reading 17

2.5.2 Questions for the future 17

References 17

3 The history of life 19

3.1 The big question 19

3.2 Sources of evidence 19

3.2.1 The fossil record 19

3.2.2 Molecular evidence 20

3.3 A brief history of diversity 20

3.4 Uneven diversity 24

3.5 Conclusions 25

3.5.1 Recommended reading 26

3.5.2 Questions for the future 26

References 26

4 How many species are there? 29

4.1 The big question 29

4.2 How can we not know? 29

4.3 Discovery rates 30

4.4 Scaling 32

4.5 Sampling-based methods 33

4.6 Other organisms 36

4.7 Wrapping up 36

4.8 Conclusions 37

4.8.1 Recommended reading 38

4.8.2 Questions for the future 38

References 38

Part II: Diversity

5 Measuring diversity 43

5.1 The big question 43

5.2 Scales of diversity 43

5.3 Species richness 43

5.4 Believing in estimates 46

5.5 A SAD story 47

5.6 Diversity of species 49

5.7 Other measures of diversity 51

5.8