Fundamentals of Biogeography

Fundamentals of Biogeography offers a fresh, up-to-date introduction to biogeography, explaining the ecology, geography, and history of animals and plants. The book defines and examines populations, communities and ecosystems -- exploring where different animals live, and how populations grow, interact and survive. Stressing the role of ecological, geographical, historical and human factors in fashioning animal and plant distributions, Richard Huggett reveals how life adapts to its biological and physical surroundings. The book includes several sections on differing human attitudes towards nature, and how biogeography can affect conservation practice. As well as explaining key concepts and interactions, Huggett tackles many topical and controversial environmental and ethical concerns, including animal rights, species exploitation, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity, meta-populations, patchy landscapes and chaos.