Invasion Biology and Ecological Theory

Insights from a Continent in Transformation

Herbert H. T. Prins, Iain J. Gordon

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781107035812
• eBook ISBN: 9781107777064
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Many conservationists argue that invasive species form one of the most important threats to ecosystems the world over, often spreading quickly through their new environments and jeopardising the conservation of native species. As such, it is important that reliable predictions can be made regarding the effects of new species on particular habitats. This book provides a critical appraisal of ecosystem theory using case studies of biological invasions in Australasia. Each chapter is built around a set of eleven central hypotheses from community ecology, which were mainly developed in North American or European contexts. The authors examine the hypotheses in the light of evidence from their particular species, testing their power in explaining the success or failure of invasion and accepting or rejecting each hypothesis as appropriate. The conclusions have far-reaching consequences for the utility of community ecology, suggesting a rejection of its predictive powers and a positive reappraisal of natural history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Invasion Biology and Ecological Theory
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword
• 1 Testing hypotheses about biological invasions and Charles Darwin’s two-creators rumination
• Part I Ancient invaders
• 2 Australia’s Acacia: unrecognised convergent evolution
• 3 The mixed success of Mimosoideae clades invading into Australia
• 4 Perspectives from parrots on biological invasions
• 5 Invasion ecology of honeyeaters
• 6 The invasion of terrestrial fauna into marine habitat: birds in mangroves
• 7 The biological invasion of Sirenia into Australasia
• 8 Flying foxes and drifting continents
• 9 Invasion ecology of Australasian marsupials
• 10 Murine rodents: late but highly successful invaders
• 11 Drift of a continent: broken connections
• 12 The development of a climate: an arid continent with wet fringes
• Part II Modern invaders
• 13 Invasion by woody shrubs and trees
• 14 Modern tree colonisers from Australia into the rest of the world
• 15 Failed introductions: finches from outside Australia
• 16 The skylark
• 17 Why northern hemisphere waders did not colonise the south
• 18 Weak migratory interchange by birds between Australia and Asia
• 19 Introducing a new top predator, the dingo
• 20 The European rabbit: Australia’s worst mammalian invader
• 21 The rise and fall of the Asian water buffalo in the monsoonal tropics of northern Australia
• 22 A critique of ecological theory and a salute to natural history
• Index