Biotic regulation: Book contents
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Contents

Gorshkov V.G., Gorshkov V.V., Makarieva A.M. (2000)
Biotic Regulation of the Environment: Key Issue of Global Change.
Springer-Praxis Series in Environmental Sciences, Springer, London, 367 pp.

CHAPTER 1. General overview

1.1 External environment and internal milieu
1.2 Adaptation to, or regulation of, the environment?
1.3 Major inconsistencies in the genetic adaptation paradigm
1.4 Discreteness and stability of biological species
1.5 Global environment formed by the natural biota
1.6 Biotic regulation of the environment
1.7 Concepts of genetic adaptation and biotic regulation are mutually exclusive
1.8 Empirical evidence for the biotic regulation of the environment
1.9 Stability of life organisation
1.10 Mechanism of biotic regulation
1.11 Natural distribution of energy consumption over individuals of different body size
1.12 Conserving biodiversity or biotic regulation?
1.13 Biotic regulation cannot be replaced by technology
1.14 Ecological problems of humankind
1.15 Demography
 

CHAPTER 2. What is life?

2.1 Distinctive properties of life
2.2 Physical and biological stability
2.3 Sexual dimorphism
2.4 Competitiveness and organisation of life
2.5 Altruistic interaction of individuals
2.6 Notorious group selection
2.7 The basic principle of biology
2.8 Impossibility of globally correlated living objects
2.9 Norm and defect
2.10 The quantum nature of life
2.11 Ecological community as the highest level of biological organisation
 

CHAPTER 3. Ecology of organisms with different body sizes (PDF, 2.5 Mb)

3.1 Metabolic power of individuals
3.2 Body size limits
3.3 Energetics and body size of photosynthesising plants
3.4 Sensitivity of the biota
3.5 Fluctuations of synthesis and destruction of organic matter
3.6 Immobile and locomotive organisms
3.7 Distribution of consumption by heterotrophs with respect to their body size
3.8 Distribution of biomass of heterotrophs with respect to their body size
 

CHAPTER 4. Ecology of locomotive animals (PDF, 2.1 Mb)

4.1 Daily average travelling distance
4.2 The maximum speed of movement for animals
4.3 Maximum permissible share of biomass consumption by locomotive animals
4.4 Settled and nomadic lifestyle of locomotive animals
4.5 Carnivores
4.6 Diffusion of excreta
4.7 Conclusions
 

CHAPTER 5. Ecological principles of biotic regulation

5.1 Ecological limitations on expansion of species
5.2 Biotic and inorganic fluxes of matter in the biosphere
5.3 Evolutionary progress and environmental degradation
5.4 Matter cycles in the biosphere
5.5 Environmental homeostasis and the biotic interpretation of the Le Chatelier principle
5.6 Biotic regulation of matter cycles
5.7 Limiting biogens. Resources: renewable and non-renewable
5.8 Immigration in the ecological community
 

CHAPTER 6. Biotic regulation in action (PDF, 5.0 Mb)

6.1 The biological pump of atmospheric carbon
6.2 Changing production of dissolved organic matter in the ocean
6.3 Global carbon cycle change
6.4 Historical dynamics of the global change
6.5 Stopping the global carbon change
6.6 The water cycle
6.7 Forest succession: recovery of forest communities after perturbations
6.8 Forest succession: analysis of empirical evidence
6.8.1 Formation of the environment by forest communities
6.8.2 Recovery dynamics
6.8.3 Fires, windfalls, insect invasions: natural periodicity
6.8.4 The climate issue
6.8.5 Current state of forest communities
 

CHAPTER 7. Energy and information (PDF, 1.6 Mb)

7.1 Order and decay
7.2 Solar energy
7.3 Stores and fluxes of information in natural biota and civilisation
7.4 Ecological information of large animals
 

CHAPTER 8. Unique nature of climate stability on Earth

8.1. Major climatic characteristics of Earth
8.2. Spectral characteristics of thermal radiation
8.3. Traditional estimates of the contributions from different greenhouse gases to the greenhouse effect
8.4. Dependence of the greenhouse effect on concentrations of the greenhouse gases
8.5. Possible Earth's climates and their stability
8.6. Physical stability of the Earth's climate
8.7. Biotic stability of the modern climate of Earth
 
CHAPTER 9. Genetic bases of biotic regulation and life stability: Theoretical consideration

9.1 Organisation of genetic information of species
9.2 Population in the absence of stabilising selection
9.3 Stabilisation of genetic information of species
9.4 Sensitivity of competitive interaction
9.5 Normal genotypes and the normal genome
9.6 Normal, decay and adaptive polymorphism in a population
9.7 Stability of biological species under natural conditions
9.8 Stability of biological species under unnatural conditions
9.9 Biological species: definition
 

CHAPTER 10. Genetic bases of biotic regulation and life stability: Analysis of empirical evidence

10.1 Genetic recombination
10.2 Sexual dimorphism and regulation of birth rate of decay individuals
10.3 Haploidy and diploidy
10.4 Effective haploidy: autosomal heterozygosity and sex hemizygosity
10.5 Threshold heterozygosity values and Haldane's rule
10.6 Estimates of lethal and hybrid heterozygosities
10.7 Brief account of different views on the nature of intraspecific variability
10.8 Poisson Distribution of the Number of Polymorphic Loci
10.9. Natural level of heterozygosity in mammals
10.10 Heterozygosity dependence of body mass and genome size
 

CHAPTER 11. Evolution (PDF, 1.5 Mb [300 dpi], 650 Kb [150 dpi])

11.1 Evolution and environmental change
11.2 Origin of new species
11.3 Evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes
11.4 Uniformity of evolutionary tempo in different biological taxa
11.5. Conclusions
 

CHAPTER 12. Conclusions: Can the biosphere be treated as a
resource?
 

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