Evolution and Ecology
Subtitle: The Pace of Life (Cambridge Studies in Ecology)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: December 28, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9780521390286
Subjects: Evolution; Quaternary; Plant Ecology; Science; Science/Mathematics; Life Sciences - Ecology; Life Sciences - Evolution; Life Sciences - Zoology - General; Science / Ecology; Science / Evolution; Science : Life Sciences - Ecology; Science : Life Sciences - Zoology - General; Evolution (Biology); Paleoecology
First sentence: This chapter presents the current status of thinking on evolutionary processes in ecological and geological time.
Description: The mechanisms of macroevolutionary change have long been a contentious issue. Palaeoecological evidence, presented in this book, shows that evolutionary processes visible in ecological time do not build up into macroevolutionary trends, contrary to Darwin's original thesis.

The author discusses how climatic oscillations on ice-age time-scales are paced by variations in the Earth's orbit, and have thus been a permanent feature of Earth history. There is, however, little evidence for macroevolutionary change in response to these climatic changes, suggesting that over geological time macroevolution does not occur as a result of accumulated short-term processes.

These conclusions are used to construct a post-modern evolutionary synthesis in which evolution and ecology play an equal role. Written by a leading palaeoecologist, this book will be of interest to researchers in both ecology and evolutionary biology.