Table of Contents 1. Biodiversity – an introduction 1.1 Origins of the concept 1.2 Components of biodiversity 1.3 What is a species? 1.4 Time-space scales in the study of biodiversity 1.5 Genesis of biodiversity 2. Species diversity 2.1 How big was Noah’s Ark? 2.2 Species concepts 2.3 The terrestrial and marine realms 2.4 Speciation 2.5 Patterns of speciation 2.5.1 Geographical (allopatric) speciation 2.5.2 Sympatric speciation 2.5.2.1 Polyploidy speciation 2.5.2.2 Competitive speciation 2.6 Extinction 2.7 Estimators of species richness 2.7.1 Extrapolation methods 2.7.2 Interpolation methods 2.8 Measures of species diversity 2.9 Species diversity and scale 3. Patterns of species diversity in time and space 3.1 Species dynamics in time 3.1.1 Evolutionary time scale 3.1.2 Ecological time scale 3.1.3 Seasonal time scale 3.1.4 Daily time scale 3.2 Species dynamics in space 3.2.1 Patterns of distribution 3.2.1.1 The latitudinal gradient 3.2.1.2 Altitudinal gradient 3.2.1.3 Depth gradient 3.2.1.4 Longitudinal gradient 3.2.1.5 Radial gradient 3.2.2 Species-area relationships 3.2.3 The role of environmental disturbances 3.2.4 The role of productivity 3.3 Patterns unrelated to the time-space scale 4. Functional diversity 5. Humans as an evolutionary force 5.1 The scale of human impacts 5.2 Humans as major predators of the Earth’s fauna 5.3 Introduction of alien species 5.3.1 The impact of alien species 5.3.2 A time-scale perspective on invasions 5.3.3 Management objectives in dealing with invasive species 6. Humans and biodiversity 6.1 The human socio-economic system 6.2 Biodiversity as a source of economic values 6.2.1 Valuation methods 6.3 Business and biodiversity 6.4 Implementing management systems for a sustainable use of biodiversity Glossary Literature cited Inhalte, Preise unter www.forstbuch.de bzw. www.forestrybooks.com
