Most animals show some degree of sexual size dimorphism. However, the degree and direction of dimorphism vary substantially among taxa and even among populations within species. Major progress has been made in the study of sexual size dimorphism in the last decade. Yet detailed studies on the proximate and ultimate causes of sexual size dimorphism in a single animal taxon are few (e.g. Chapters...

In this paper I propose that evolutionary demography and associated theory from human behavioral ecology provide a strong basis for explaining the available evidence for the patterns observed in the first agricultural settlement of Europe in the 7th-5th millennium cal. BC, linking together a variety of what have previously been disconnected observations and casting doubt on some long-standing e...

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the extent to which co-ethnic workers are underor over-represented in industry and occupation-based employment sectors based on the characteristics of workers themselves, attributes and resources of ethnic groups in which workers are affiliated, and characteristics of metropolitan areas. Specifically, this paper evaluates two claims to be found in ...

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, United Kingdom LA1 4YQ. 2 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP. 3 Current address: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4AP. Email: sjt...

MRAG Americas, P.O.B. 1410, Capitola, CA 95010, United States Center for Stock Assessment Research, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States c Fisheries Ecology Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, 110 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States d Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Califor...

Building qualitative models is a difficult task . The construction of re-usable models, as well as the formalisation of the modelling process itself, are goals both to researchers in qualitative reasoning and ecology . This paper presents a library of model fragments for reasoning about the behaviour of ecological communities . «'e have developed a kernel of partial models that represents gener...

Among ecologists, historians of science, and environmentalists there is growing interest in the history of ecology. The editor of theJournal of the History of Biology therefore requested that I write a new bibliographic essay to supplement the one published in 1977. My earlier essay, which covered relevant writings from ancient to recent times, concentrated on general ecology and population eco...

Conventional theories of population and community dynamics are based on a single currency such as number of individuals, biomass, carbon or energy. However, organisms are constructed of multiple elements and often require them (in particular carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen) in different ratios than provided by their resources; this mismatch may constrain the net transfer of energy and elements ...

Evan P. Economo,* Andrew J. Kerkhoff and Brian J. Enquist Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A6700, Austin, TX 78712, USA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Biosciences West, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Population and community level processes must be at least par...

Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. Metabolic rate, the rate at which organisms take up, transform, and expend energy and materials, is the most fundamental biological rate. We have developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate va...