Recomendações de Livros Técnicos – Laboratório de Ecologia de Fragmentos Florestais

Ecologia

História da ecologia

BrianA.Maurer. 1999. Untangling Ecological Complexity: The Macroscopic Perspective. University Of Chicago Press. 292 páginas.
Ecologists increasingly find themselves called upon to address the impacts of global change on biodiversity. Yet most studies of biodiversity focus solely on intensive, experimental analyses of localized ecological communities. In Untangling Ecological Complexity, Brian A. Maurer argues for a more pluralistic approach, showing how ecologists might enhance their ability to tackle global problems by incorporating broader spatial and temporal perspectives into their research. Maurer begins by reviewing the strengths and limitations of reductionist experimental approaches. Although these studies have produced much valuable data, their small scale restricts the kinds of inferences that can be drawn from them. Maurer then demonstrates how statistical methods can be used to identify processes (such as dispersal or nonrandom extinction) that operate across broad geographic scales, yet which also have profound impacts on local ecosystems. This macroscopic perspective, Maurer suggests, provides a powerful tool for untangling ecological complexity.

Robert P. McIntosh. 1986. The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory. Cambridge University Press – 400 páginas
The Background of Ecology is a critical and up-to-date review of the origins and development of ecology, with emphasis on the major concepts and theories shared in the ecological traditions of plant and animal ecology, limnology, and oceanography. The work traces developments in each of these somewhat isolated areas and identifies, where possible, parallels or convergences among them. Dr McIntosh describes how ecology emerged as a science in the context of nineteenth-century natural history.

This book offers a critique of contemporary ecology, which could be applied to any discipline. Author Peters contends that science is a device to offer information about nature through predictions, but that a substantial part of ecology cannot be science because it provides no concrete information and much of the rest of ecology provides data of such poor quality that it can only be called soft science. Although instances of these deficiencies have often been identified, the pervasiveness of the problem has not been fully acknowledged, nor have the similarities among different problem areas been appreciated. If ecology and environmental science are to grow to meet the needs of the present decade and next millennium, scientists in these fields will need much more acute critical abilities than they have yet demonstrated. Professor Peters argues specifically that a return to simple questions of fact, to observations, and to questions of general relevance to science and society can make ecology a useful, practical, and informative science, which is desperately needed to meet the problems of our age. This thought-provoking and perhaps controversial book will be of particular interest to ecologists, but all scientists, from undergraduates to senior academics and professionals, can benefit from reading it.

Leslie Real, James H. Brown. 1991. Foundations of Ecology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. Ecological Society of America. University of Chicago Press, 905 páginas.

Assembled here for the first time in one volume are forty classic papers that have laid the foundations of modern ecology. Whether by posing new problems, demonstrating important effects, or stimulating new research, these papers have made substantial contributions to an understanding of ecological processes, and they continue to influence the field today. The papers span nearly nine decades of ecological research, from 1887 on, and are organized in six sections: foundational papers, theoretical advances, synthetic statements, methodological developments, field studies, and ecological experiments. Selections range from Connell’s elegant account of experiments with barnacles to Watt’s encyclopedic natural history, from a visionary exposition by Grinnell of the concept of niche to a seminal essay by Hutchinson on diversity. Six original essays by contemporary ecologists and a historian of ecology place the selections in context and discuss their continued relevance to current research. This combination of classic papers and fresh commentaries makes Foundations of Ecology both a convenient reference to papers often cited today and an essential guide to the intellectual and conceptual roots of the field.

John A. Wiens. 2007 Foundation Papers in Landscape Ecology. Columbia University Press, 582 páginas.

Landscape ecology focuses on spatial heterogeneity, or the idea that where things are and where they are in relation to other things can have important consequences for a wide range of phenomena. Landscape ecology integrates humans with natural ecosystems and brings a spatial perspective to such fields as natural resource management, conservation, and urban planning. The thirty-seven papers included in this volume present the origins and development of landscape ecology and encompass a variety of perspectives, approaches, and geographies. The editors begin with articles that illuminate the discipline’s diverse scientific foundations, such as L. S. Berg’s keystone paper outlining a geoecological analysis based on soil science, physical geography, and geology. Next they include selections exemplifying landscape ecologists’ growing awareness of spatial pattern, the different ways they incorporated scale into their work, the progression of landscape ecology from a qualitative to a quantitative discipline, and how concepts from landscape ecology have come to permeate ecological research and influence land-use policy, conservation practices, landscape architecture, and geography. Together these articles provide a solid introduction to what is now widely recognized as an important area of research and application that encourages new ways of thinking about natural and human-dominated ecosystems.

Robin L. Chazdon & T. C. Whitmore. Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology: Classic Papers with Commentaries. University Of Chicago Press. 862 pages.
Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology presents a timely collection of pioneering work in the study of these diverse and fascinating ecosystems. Modeled on the highly successful Foundations of Ecology, this book consists of facsimiles of papers chosen by world experts in tropical biology as the “classics” in the field. The papers are organized into sections on related topics, each introduced with a discussion of their role in triggering subsequent research. Topics covered include ecological and evolutionary perspectives on the origins of tropical diversity; plant-animal interactions; patterns of species diversity and distribution of arthropods, vertebrates, and plants; forest dynamics and ecosystem ecology; conservation biology; and tropical forest management. Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology makes essential works in the development of tropical biology available in a convenient form to both senior scholars interested in the roots of their discipline and to students encountering the field for the first time, as well as to everyone concerned with tropical conservation.

Estatística

Jerrold H. Zar. 2009. Biostatistical Analysis. Pearson. 960 pages.
Zar’s Biostatistical Analysis, Fifth Edition, is the ideal book for readers seeking practical coverage of statistical analysis methods used by researchers to collect, summarize, analyze and draw conclusions from biological research. The latest edition of this best-selling textbook is both comprehensive and easy to read. It is suitable as an introduction for beginners and as a comprehensive reference book for biological researchers and other advanced users. Introduction; Populations and Samples; Measures of Central Tendency; Measures of Dispersion and Variability; Probabilities; The Normal Distribution; One-Sample Hypotheses; Two-Sample Hypotheses; Paired-Sample Hypotheses; Multisample Hypotheses: The Analysis of Variance; Multiple Comparisons; Two-Factor Analysis of Variance; Data Transformations; Multiway Factorial Analysis of Variance; Nested (Hierarchical) Analysis of Variance; Multivariate Analysis of Variance; Simple Linear Regression; Comparing Simple Linear Regression Equations; Simple Linear Correlation; Multiple Regression and Correlation; Polynomial Regression; Testing for Goodness of Fit; Contingency Tables; More on Dichotomous Variables; Testing for Randomness; Circular Distributions: Descriptive Statistics; Circular Distributions: Hypothesis Testing.

Robert R. Sokal & F. James Rohlf. 2011. Biometry. W. H. Freeman. 937 pages.
This easily understood but rigorous introduction to biological statistics is a standard text and valuable reference for anyone doing scientific research. The fourth edition has been thoroughly revised and updated using computer calculations and the authors have expanded on important modern topics.