1st Edition

Environmental Biology

By Terry Bruce Hilleman Copyright 2009
    392 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Environmental biology is a study in the conditions of life; these conditions impact the life within it. The conditions of life are not limited to the present time; environmental biology has applications to any time in the history (or future) of any place on earth (or beyond). The environment sets limits on the life within it. The loss of habitat is the loss of the conditions of life; that is, loss of habitat is really loss of the conditions of existence necessary for the life within. The loss of habitat is the primary cause of extinction. This book clearly identifies why habitat destruction is the primary cause of extinction, not only for today, but for all time. It establishes that the degree of habitat destruction is directly proportional to the degree of past extinction event severity. Habitat destruction creates changing, isolated environments, which seem to be a component of both destructive and creative evolutionary change.

    Prologue
    Overview
    Retrospective
    Beyond Ancient History
    The Atmosphere
    Milankovitch Cycle(s)
    Climate
    Major Environmental Extinction Events
    Extinction Events Initiate Change
    Chicken Little Was Right
    Fire Down Below
    Constant Extinction
    Ecological Succession
    Extinction Event Significance
    Environmental Extinction and Environmental Creation
    Environmental Creation Significance
    The Rest of the Story
    Environmentally AND Genetically Determined Evolution
    Alone
    Genetic Perspective
    Genotype and Phenotype
    Alleles
    Mutation
    Phenotype and Environment
    Genetic Constraint
    Genetic Variation
    Environmental Adaptation
    A Foundation of Modern Evolutionary Biology
    Difficulties on Theory
    Environmentally-Determined Evolution?
    Macroevolution and Microevolution
    Philosophy of Genetic Mechanisms
    Biochemistry of Genetic Mechanisms
    Primary Production
    Respiration
    Ecosystem Energy Flow
    Common Ground
    Biodiversity
    Habitat Diversity
    Overpopulation
    Humanity
    Do the Math
    The Ongoing Losses
    A Choice
    Epilogue
    Environment and Evolution Questions
    Human Population and Resource Questions
    References
    Index

    Biography

    Hilleman, Terry Bruce