Aspects of the Genesis and Maintenance of Biological Diversity

Introduction Overview of Part 1: Evolution: Patterns and Processes 1: Diversity in the past: comparing cladistic phylogenies and stratigraphy 2: What can phylogenetic patterns tell us about the evolutionary processes generating biodiversity? 3: New computer packages for analysing phylogenetic tree structure 4: Is it ancient or modern history that we can read in the genes? 5: Evolution of adaptive polymorphism in spatially heterogeneous environments Overview of Part 2: Ecology: From populations to communities to ecosystems 6: Local diversity: a problem with too many solutions 7: The population dynamics of single host - multiparasitoid interactions 8: Structural constraints on food web assembly 9: Trophic interactions, nutrient supply, and the structure of freshwater pelagic food webs 10: Linking communities and ecosystems: trophic interactions as nutrient cycling pathways Overview of Part 3: Large scale diversity patterns and conservation 11: Does climate cause the biodiversity gradient? 12: Spatial covariance in the species richness of higher taxa .n 13Biodiversity of parasites in relation to their life-cycle 14: Biodiversity value and taxonomic relatedness 15: Utilizing genetic information in plant conservation programmes 16: Essential ingredients of real metapopulations, exemplified by the butterfly Plebejus argus. Index