How Life Increases Biodiversity: An Autocatalytic Hypothesis

Cover\nHalf Title\nTitle Page\nCopyright Page\nTable of Contents\nAcknowledgments\nAuthor\nChapter 1 Introduction\n	References\nChapter 2 Biodiversity: Organisms Create It, Ecosystems Maximize It\n	What Is Biodiversity?\n	Numbers of Organisms and Biodiversity Were Both Spectacularly High Before Human Impacts Became Dominant\n	How Many Species Are There?\n	Cryptic Species\n	Life Achieved Amazingly High Diversity with Very Little Space and Nutrients\n	Natural Selection Favors Biodiversity\n	After Mass Extinctions, Subordinate Taxa Often Replace Dominant Ones\n	Niches Become Filled Quickly; There Are No Empty Niches for Long Time Periods\n	Key Innovations Lead to Major Adaptive Radiations\n	Quasi-Stable States Support the ABH\n	Life’s Evolutionary History Has Trended in the Direction of Biodiversity, Not Complexity\n	Four Patterns of Biodiversity Strongly Support the ABH\n	References\nChapter 3 Natural Selection Is One Mechanism by Which the Autocatalytic Biodiversity Hypothesis Operates\n	Extraordinary Ability of Organisms to Adapt by Natural Selection\n	Organisms Increase Variability within Populations\n	Organisms Drive Speciation\n	Sexual Selection Increases Biodiversity\n	Organisms Caused Many Macroevolutionary Transitions\n	References\nChapter 4 Mutualism Is Fundamental and Greatly Increases Diversity\n	Mutualism Is Favored by Natural Selection, Very Common, and Greatly Increases Diversity\n	Types of Mutualism\n		Genetic Coevolutionary Mutualism\n		Prokaryote-to-Prokaryote Mutualisms\n		Eukaryote-Bacteria Mutualisms\n			The Mitochondrion\n			Plastids and the Chloroplast\n			Nitrogen Fixation\n			Multicellularity from Mutualistic Evolution between Protists and Bacteria\n			Bioluminescence\n		Eukaryote-Eukaryote Mutualisms (Sometimes Including Prokaryotes)\n			Lichens\n			Mixoplankton\n			Termites and Their Mutualistic Microbiome\n			Endophytes and Plants\n		Animal and Plant Mutualisms, Sometimes Involving Other Taxa\n			Leafcutter Ants, Plants, Fungi, and Bacteria\n			Plants, Mycorrhizal Fungi, Rodents, and Helper Bacteria\n		Mutualisms Exclusively between Plants and Animals\n			Plant Pollination and Seed Dispersal by Animals\n		Pollination of Angiosperms by Animals\n		Seed Dispersal by Animals\n		Coral Reefs\n		Müllerian Mimicry\n		Additional Examples of Mutualism in Nature\n	Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism Are Often Hard to Distinguish, and Are Complex\n	When One Considers Indirect Mutualism, Mutualism Is Very Common\n	Cheating in “Mutualism”\n	Interactions in Nature Involving Mutualism Are Often Extremely Complex, with High Diversity Maintaining Their Stability\n	Ecosystems Help Other Ecosystems That Are Sometimes Far Away from Them; This Is Often Carried Out by Life\n	Conclusion: Eminent Importance of Mutualism\n	References\nChapter 5 Commensalism Is Ubiquitous, and Maintains and Increases Diversity\n	Introduction\n	Types of Commensalism\n		Inquilinism\n		Use of Another Organism as Habitat\n		Batesian Mimicry\n		Other Kinds of Mimicry\n		Phoresy\n		Other Commensalisms\n	Indirect Commensalism\n	Keystone Species\n		Some Ecosystem Engineers Are Keystone Species\n			Beavers Are Good Examples of Keystone Species and Ecosystem Engineers That Increase Species Richness Tremendously\n	Conclusion\n	References\nChapter 6 Interspecific Competition Increases Species Richness\n	References\nChapter 7 Plants Are Ecosystem Engineers That Aid Other Life and Are Linked to It\n	References\nChapter 8 Herbivores Generate Biodiversity\n	References\nChapter 9 Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts: Mutualistic Relationships That Create High Diversity\n	References\nChapter 10 Decomposers Are Indispensable to Their Ecosystems\n	References\nChapter 11 Eight New Proposed Principles of Ecology and Evolution\n	References\nIndex