Buch, Englisch, 464 Seiten, Format (B × H): 247 mm x 171 mm, Gewicht: 886 g
The Demographic Consequences of Functional Traits in Changing Environments
Buch, Englisch, 464 Seiten, Format (B × H): 247 mm x 171 mm, Gewicht: 886 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-286795-7
Verlag: Oxford University Press
is more important for understanding the assembly of plant communities, predicting plant responses to global change, and enhancing the restoration of our rapidly degrading biosphere. The vast array of plant strategy models that characterize the discipline now require synthesis. These models tend to
emphasize either life history strategies based on demography, or functional strategies based on ecophysiology. Indeed, this disciplinary divide between demography and physiology runs deep and continues to this today.
The goal of this accessible book is to articulate a coherent framework that unifies life history theory with comparative functional ecology to advance prediction in plant ecology. Armed with a deeper understanding of the dimensionality of life history and functional traits, we are now equipped to quantitively link phenotypes to population growth rates across gradients of resource availability and disturbance regimes. Predicting how species respond to global change is perhaps the most important
challenge of our time. A robust framework for plant strategy theory will advance this research agenda by testing the generality of traits for predicting population dynamics.