Marmot Biology
Cambridge University Press, 6/30/2014
EAN 9781107053946, ISBN10: 1107053943
Hardcover, 410 pages, 25.2 x 17.7 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
Focusing on the physiological and behavioral factors that enable a species to live in a harsh seasonal environment, this book places the social biology of marmots in an environmental context. It draws on the results of a forty-year empirical study of the population biology of the yellow-bellied marmot near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in the Upper East River Valley in Colorado, USA. The text examines life-history features such as body-size, habitat use, environmental physiology, social dynamics, and kinship. Considerable new data analyses are integrated with material published over a fifty-year period, including extensive natural history observations, providing an essential foundation for integrating social and population processes. Finally, the results of research into the yellow-bellied marmot are related to major ecological and evolutionary theories, especially inclusive fitness and population regulation, making this a valuable resource for students and researchers in animal behavior, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation.
Introduction
Part I. The Diversity and Evolutionary History of Marmots
1. Marmots in human culture
from folklore to research
2. Marmots
their history and diversity
3. Marmot habitats
4. Use of resources
5. Evolution of sociality
6. Body-mass variation
7. Hibernation energetics and the circannual rhythm
Part II. Biotic and Abiotic Environments
8. The environment of the yellow-bellied marmot
9. Environmental physiology
Part III. Social Structure and Behavior of the Yellow-Bellied Marmot
10. The role of kinship
resource sharing
11. The role of kinship
social behavior and matriline dynamics
12. Social behavior
play and individuality
13. Communication
14. Alarm responses of the yellow-bellied marmot
Part IV. Reproductive Success
15. Male reproductive success
16. Female reproductive success
Part V. Population Dynamics
17. Basic demography
18. Dispersal and immigration
19. Metapopulation dynamics
20. Population regulation or population limitation
Part VI. The Future of Marmots
21. Climate change and conservation
22. Major life-history traits
References
Index.