A course in mathematical and statistical ecology (Q5952379)

This is an interesting textbook on mathematical and statistical ecology with a balanced in-depth treatment of mathematical and statistical aspects (derivations and proofs are pursued, with few exceptions on more demanding cases) and ecological issues. Many real examples, as well as exercises (at the end of each chapter, but covering only partially the chapters contents), help the reader. Prerequisites are elementary knowledge of ODEs and of probability and statistics. The book is suitable for students either with a mathematical or a biological background. Besides the introductory chapter, there are chapters on single species populations (discrete and continuous time models with and without age-structure, birth and death processes), on two interacting species (competition, symbiosis, predation and parasitism, including the study of functional response), on abundance estimation (detailed study of nearest neighbor, line transect, and capture-recapture methods; treatment of fish stock assessment; indirect estimation methods), on biodiversity (detailed treatment of species abundance distributions, diversity indexes and measurement of species richness, as well as comparison and statistical estimation issues), on harvesting (including bioeconomic issues), and on animal behavior (optimal foraging models, models for reproductive traits, contests and game theory). The book ends with the references, a glossary of ecological terms and an index.