Community Ecology Processes, Models, and Applications

Community ecology is the study of the interactions between populations of co-existing species. This book provides a survey of the state-of-the-art in theory and applications of community ecology, with special attention to topology, dynamics, the importance of spatial and temporal scale, as well as applications to emerging problems in human-dominated ecosystems (including the restoration and reconstruction of viable communities). It adopts a mainly theoretical approach and focuses on the use of network-based theory which remains little explored in standard community ecology textbooks. The book includes discussion of the effects of biotic invasions on natural communities, the linking of ecological network structure to empirically measured community properties and dynamics, the effects of evolution on community patterns and processes, and the integration of fundamental interactions into ecological networks. A final chapter indicates future research directions for the discipline. This book provides ideal graduate seminar course material.