The driving forces of natural selection leave their traces in the shapes of living creatures and their patterns of distribution. In this thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion of evolutionary process and adaptive response, Geerat Vermeij elucidates the general principles that underlie the great diversity of marine forms found in the world's great oceans.

Migration of humans and animals, plants and even microbes is a ubiquitous global phenomenon. This book covers all forms of migration - plant, microbial, animal or human - and their mutual impact in detail. The contributions in this book are the result of an innovative International Conference and OECD Workshop aimed at triggering off the interdisciplinary dialogue between natural scientists and socioeconomists.

The potential for geographic range shifts of species is a pressing issue in ecology given the rapid rate of anthropogenic climate change. The shifts will change total species richness and biodiversity patterns because species likely differ in their capacity to shift under climate change. This concern has sparked efforts to project changes in species' geographic distributions. Several of the underlying assumptions of the ecological theories driving these projections, however, have not been rigorously tested. Current models of species' ranges assume uniformity with respect to climatic impacts on fitness for all individuals of a species, which ignores local selection and historical genetic differences. Following this, these models assume that warmer temperature at the poleward edge of a species' range will increase fitness ('peripheral enhancement'), causing population increases and greater poleward colonization. My dissertation examines this assumption by using two butterfly species, Erynnis propertius and Papillo zelicaon, that co-occur and have contrasting levels of host specialization and dispersal ability. The aim of my research is to determine if populations are uniform or differentiated with respect to their responses to both temperature and host plant. I used a series of common garden experiments in the field and lab where I variede climate and host plant to see if locally adapted forms within species are present. I did not find evidence of local adaption in P. zelicaon, but populations across the species' range performed poorly temperature altered growth and survivorship in this species. Growth and survivorship of E. propertius larvae increased in warmer conditions. However, local adaptation during the overwintering period counteracted the increases found during the growing period. Further, southern population of E. propertius are locally adapted to their natal host plants, so colonization poleward may be further limited. This more nuanced consideration of species could lead to different expectations for the biological consequences of climate change if species can not shift their ranges as previously projected. We can not properly mitigate the effects of climate change on biodiversity until our projection methods capture realistic dynamics of species' ranges.

This is the eighth volume of a ten-volume series on The Natural History of the Crustacea. The volume examines Evolution and Biogeography, and the first part of this volume is entirely dedicated to the explanation of the origins and successful establishment of the Crustacea in the oceans. In the second part of the book, the biogeography of the Crustacea is explored in order to infer how they conquered different biomes globally while adapting to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial conditions. The final section examines more general patterns and processes, and the chapters offer useful insight into the future of crustaceans.

By focusing on the crucial role of environment in the process of adaptation, Robert Brandon clarifies definitions and principles so as to help make the argument of evolution by natural selection empirically testable. He proposes that natural selection is the process of differential reproduction resulting from differential adaptedness to a common selective environment. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.