Adaptive Herbivore Ecology : From Resources to Populations in Variable Environments

Adaptive Herbivore Ecology describes plant–herbivore interactions in the context of large African mammals (such as antelope and cattle) written by the world-leading ecologist, Norman Owen-Smith. The author develops models based on his extensive field experience in this valuable resource for academic researchers and graduates in many ecological fields.

The adaptation of herbivore behaviour to seasonal and locational variations in vegetation quantity and quality is inadequately modelled by conventional methods. Norman Owen-Smith innovatively links the principles of adaptive behaviour to their consequences for population dynamics and community ecology, through the application of a metaphysiological modelling approach. The main focus is on large mammalian herbivores occupying seasonally variable environments such as those characterised by African savannahs, but applications to temperate zone ungulates are also included. Issues of habitat suitability, species coexistence, and population stability or instability are similarly investigated. The modelling approach accommodates various sources of environmental variability, in space and time, in a simple conceptual way and has the potential to be applied to other consumer-resource systems. This text highlights the crucial importance of adaptive consumer responses to environmental variability and is aimed particularly at academic researchers and graduate students in the field of ecology.