Author : Roger Butlin
Release : 2009-01-22
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 588/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis Speciation and Patterns of Diversity by : Roger Butlin
Download or read book Speciation and Patterns of Diversity written by Roger Butlin. This book was released on 2009-01-22. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together the viewpoints of leading ecologists concerned with the processes that generate patterns of diversity, and evolutionary biologists who focus on mechanisms of speciation, this book opens up discussion in order to broaden understanding of how speciation affects patterns of biological diversity, especially the uneven distribution of diversity across time, space and taxa studied by macroecologists. The contributors discuss questions such as: Are species equivalent units, providing meaningful measures of diversity? To what extent do mechanisms of speciation affect the functional nature and distribution of species diversity? How can speciation rates be measured using molecular phylogenies or data from the fossil record? What are the factors that explain variation in rates? Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book promotes a more complete understanding of the interaction between mechanisms and rates of speciation and these patterns in biological diversity.
