John Fryxell

Serengeti National Park is one of the world's most diverse ecosystems, a natural laboratory for ecology, evolution, and conservation, with a history that dates back at least four million years to the beginnings of human evolution. The third book of a groundbreaking series, "Serengeti III" is the result of a long-term integrated research project that documents changes to this unique ecosystem every ten years.Bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines - ecologists, paleontologists, economists, social scientists, mathematicians, and disease specialists - this volume focuses on the interactions between the natural system and the human-dominated agricultural system. By examining how changes in rainfall, wildebeest numbers, commodity prices, and human populations have affected the Serengeti ecosystem, the authors conclude that changes in the natural system have affected human welfare just as changes in the human system have affected the natural world. To promote both the conservation of biota and the sustainability of human welfare, the authors recommend community-based conservation and protected-area conservation. "Serengeti III" presents a timely and provocative look at the conservation status of one of earth's most renowned ecosystems.

A book blending evolution and trophic dynamics, taking into account recent advances in both behavioral and population ecology, is long overdue. A central objective of this book is to consider whether adaptive behavioral decisions on the individual organism level might tend to stabilize trophic interactions. A second major goal of the book is to explore the implications of presumably adaptive behaviors on trophic dynamics and the implications of trophic dynamics for the evolution of adaptive behaviors. All evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and behavioral ecologists should find this exciting volume essential reading.