rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: On the Origins and Dynamics of Biodiversity: the Role of Chance
  name:
    name part: Pavé, Alain.
    role:
      role term: creator
    role:
      role term: author.
  name:
    name part: SpringerLink (Online service)
  type of resource: text
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: xxu
    date issued: 2010
    edition: 1st.
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: electronic
    form: electronic resource
    reformatting quality: access
    form: remote
    extent: XVIII, 178 p. online resource.
  abstract: What are the origins of chance? Although its existence has long been accepted as a fact, the theory of probability only allows us to examine the random events produced by chance without enabling us to determine what creates it – and this despite knowing that living systems (from the cell to organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems) need chance to survive. In this book on living systems, we identify two origins: one external, coming from the environment, and the other, internal, produced by biological mechanisms that are molecular as well as cellular, demographic and ecological. These internal mechanisms – veritable “biological roulettes” - are similar to the mechanical devices that bring about “physical chance”. They are at once the products and the engines of evolution and they also generate biodiversity, often in response to the vagaries of the environment. By creating biodiversity, these biological roulettes act as a kind of a life insurance that, on an evolutionary scale, ensure that life will continue after great upheaval: within the wide variety of organisms, there are some that are potentially adapted to new environmental conditions. From among those that survive, a new living world will grow and diversify. By examining biodiversity at all scales and all levels, this book seeks to evaluate the breadth of our knowledge on this topical subject; to propose an integrated look at living things; and to assess the role of chance in the dynamics of biodiversity, from populations to ecosystems and the biosphere, and more generally in evolutionary processes. Finally, it suggests that by simultaneously examining the mechanisms of diversification, maintenance and extinction, we can model the dynamics of biodiversity to better understand it and predict its variations and, thus, to foresee the practical aspects for managing living systems.
  table of contents: Questioning Chance -- Chance in Living Systems -- Lessons for Managing Living Systems -- The Contribution of Models and Modelling: Some Examples -- Biodiversity and Ecological Theories -- Chance and Evolution -- Evaluating Biodiversity: The Example of French Guiana -- Conclusion.
  note: by Alain Pavé.
  subject:
    topic: Life sciences
  subject:
    topic: Biology
    topic: Philosophy
  subject:
    topic: Biodiversity
  subject:
    topic: Ecology
  subject:
    topic: Life Sciences
  subject:
    topic: Biodiversity
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy of Biology
  subject:
    topic: Theoretical Ecology/Statistics
  classification: QH541.15.B56
  classification: 577
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Springer eBooks
  identifier: 9781441962447
  identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6244-7
  record info:
    record creation date: 100702
    record change date: 20131217194418.0
    record identifier: 978-1-4419-6244-7