On this page

The books are listed by publication date with the most recent at the top.

Avian Energetics and Nutritional Ecology

Editor: Cynthia Carey

2012

"Avian Energetics and Nutritional Ecology analyzes the extremely energetic lifestyle of birds. Birds invest a large amount of energy flying, migrating, in parental care, and in reproducing. Leading researchers describe energy use by birds, and each chapter discusses the ecological implication of the topic and as far as possible describes the molecular and cellular mechanism behind each adaptation. Included are chapters on nutrition, digestion and feeding, metabolism, thermoregulation, hypometabolism, starvation, flight, moulting, foraging, migratory fattening, reproduction, incubation, embryonic development, post-natal growth, and populational energetics."

Extreme Measures: The Ecological Energetics of Birds and Mammals

Brian McNab

2012

"Along with reproduction, balancing energy expenditure with the limits of resource acquisition is essential for both a species and a population to survive. But energy is a limited resource, as we know well, so birds and mammals - the most energy-intensive fauna on the planet - must reduce energy expenditures to maintain this balance, some taking small steps, and others extreme measures. Here Brian K. McNab draws on his over sixty years in the field to provide a comprehensive account of the energetics of birds and mammals, one fully integrated with their natural history. McNab begins with an overview of thermal rates - much of our own energy is spent maintaining our 98.6[degrees]F temperature - and explains how the basal rate of metabolism drives energy use, especially in extreme environments. He then explores those variables that interact with the basal rate of metabolism, like body size and scale and environment, highlighting their influence on behavior, distribution, and even reproductive output. Successive chapters take up energy and population dynamics and evolution. A critical central theme that runs through the book is how the energetic needs of birds and mammals come up against rapid environmental change and how this is hastening the pace of extinction."

Granivorous Birds in Ecosystems: Their Evolution, Populations, Energetics, Adaptations, Impact and Control

Editor: Jan Pinowski, S. Charles Kendeigh

Cambridge University Press

2012

"This book was first published in 1977. It deals with the importance of weed seed and grain-eating birds in natural and agricultural environments. These birds are to be found worldwide and are a component of man-made ecosystems where they are associated with man's main food crops. An analysis is made of their evolution and genetics, population dynamics, energy and food requirements, impact on ecosystems and control. Principles, procedures and basic data are presented that can be applied to the evaluation and control of pest species anywhere in the world. In this synthesis volume full use is made of the systems approach, the ecological and evolutionary aspects of the study are integrated. In linking the studies with fundamental work on bioenergetics, new insights are provided into the behavioural and applied aspects of granivory. Studies which encompass archaeological and anthropological investigations form a backcloth for the detailed interpretation of the population biology and bioenergetics of birds."

Migration on Wings: Aerodynamics and Energetics

Lakshmi Kantha

Springer-Verlag

2012

"This book is an effort to explore the technical aspects associated with bird flight and migration on wings. After a short introduction on the birds migration, the book reviews the aerodynamics and Energetics of Flight and presents the calculation of the Migration Range. In addition, the authors explains aerodynamics of the formation flight and finally introduces great flight diagrams."

Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Birds

J. Eduardo P. W. Bicudo, William A. Buttemer, Mark A. Chappell, James T. Pearson, and Claus Bech

2010

"Birds have colonized almost every terrestrial habitat on the planet - from the poles to the tropics, and from deserts to high mountain tops. Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Birds focuses on our current understanding of the unique physiological characteristics of birds that are of particular interest to ornithologists, but also have a wider biological relevance. An introductory chapter covers the basic avian body plan and their still-enigmatic evolutionary history. The focus then shifts to a consideration of the essential components of that most fundamental of avian attributes: the ability to fly. The emphasis here is on feather evolution and development, flight energetics and aerodynamics, migration, and as a counterpoint, the curious secondary evolution of flightlessness that has occurred in several lineages. This sets the stage for subsequent chapters, which present specific physiological topics within a strongly ecological and environmental framework."

Introducing Biological Energetics: How Energy and Information Control the Living World

Norman W.H. Cheetham

2010

"This novel, interdisciplinary text presents biological understanding in terms of general underlying principles, treating energy as the overarching theme and emphasizing the all-pervading influence of energy transformation in every process, both living and non-living. Key processes and concepts are explained in turn, culminating in a description of the overall functioning and regulation of a living cell. The book rounds off the story of life with a brief account of the endosymbiotic origins of eukaryotic cells, the development of multicellularity, and the emergence of modern plants and animals. Multidisciplinary research in science is becoming commonplace. However, as traditional boundaries start to break down, researchers are increasingly aware of the deficiencies in their knowledge of related disciplines. Introducing Biological Energetics redresses the reciprocal imbalance in the knowledge levels of physical and biological scientists in particular. Its style of presentation and depth of treatment has been carefully designed to unite these two readerships."

From Energetics to Ecosystems: The Dynamics and Structure of Ecological Systems

Editor: Neil Rooney, Kevin S. McCann and David L.G. Noakes

2007

"Ecosystems are complex and enigmatic entities that are ultimately our life support systems. Understanding these systems to the point of being able to predict their behaviour in the face of perturbations requires that researchers adopt a number of strategies that vary in both approach and scale. This book, in a sense, is representative of some of the developments that have unfolded when math and physics met ecology. Here, some of the world's leading ecologists examine ecosystems from theoretical, experimental, and empirical viewpoints, from energetics to ecosystems. The book begins with simplifying and synthesizing nature's complex relationships. It then moves on to explore the mapping between food web structure and function and ends with the role of theory in integrating different research areas."

Advances in Ecological Research, Volume 36: Food Webs: From Connectivity to Energetics

Editor: H. caswell

2005

"Demonstrates a captivating knowledge of recent advances in the analysis of food webs. A food web describes the network of predator-prey interactions within a community. The simplest description of a food web specifies only who eats whom (a connectance web), with no indication of how much or how often. Chapters in this book begin with a discussion of the most detailed connectance webs ever compiled, and advance to incorporate information on the body size and numerical abundance of the species. The results yield new ways of describing food webs and powerful new models for estimating patterns of energy flow in ecosystems. It provides fresh ways of describing food webs and applies previous observations in a new context."

Seabird Energetics

Editor: G. Causey Whittow and Hermann Rahn

1984

Annual Variation of Daily Energy Expenditure by the Black-billed Magpie: A Study of Thermal and Behavorial Energetics

John N. Mugaas and James R. King

Cooper Ornithological Society

1981

Contents;

• Introduction
• Population and study area
• Rationale and methods of thermal analysis
• Nonmeteorological Variables
• Meteorological Variables
• Rationale and methods of time-activity and energy budget analysis
• Behavioral Categories
• Methods of Observation
• Energy Equivalents
• Calculation of Daily Energy Expenditure
• Statistical Treatment
• The thermal environment and its influence on the biology of the magpie
• Meteorological Measurements and the Microclimatic Set
• Calculation of Equivalent Blackbody Temperature and Its Variability
• Annual Cycle of Equivalent Blackbody Temperature in Specific Thermal Environments
• Time-activity and energy budgeting in the annual cycle
• Chronology of Events in the Annual Cycle
• Daily Time-Activity Budget
• Metabolic Cost of Activity
• Total Daily Energy Expenditure
• Discussion
• Thermal Tolerance and Geographic Distribution
• The Bout as an Index of Behavior
• Annual Cycle of Energy Expenditure
• Minimizing HTD Through Adaptive Use of Time and Energy
• Comparisons of Time Budgets of Black-billed and Yellow-billed Magpies
• Comparisons of Daily Energy Expenditure for Several Species
• Summary
• Acknowledgments
• Literature cited

Avian Energetics

Editor: Raymond A. Paynter

1974