Theoretical Ecology - concepts and applications

This book continues the authoritative and established sequence of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert M. May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories.

Theoretical Ecology: concepts and applications continues the authoritative and established sequence of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert M. May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories. This latest instalment builds on the legacy of its predecessors with a completely new set of contributions. Rather than placing emphasis on the historical ideas in theoretical ecology, the Editors have encouraged each contribution to: synthesize historical theoretical ideas within modern frameworks that have emerged in the last 10-20 years (e.g. bridging population interactions to whole food webs); describe novel theory that has emerged in the last 20 years from historical empirical areas (e.g. macro-ecology); and finally to cover the rapidly expanding area of theoretical ecological applications (e.g. disease theory and global change theory). The result i s a forward-looking synthesis that will help guide the field through a further decade of discovery and development.

It is written for upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, and researchers seeking synthesis and the state of the art in growing areas of interest in theoretical ecology, genetics, evolutionary ecology, and mathematical biology.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

1: Introduction Gabriel Gellner, Kevin S. McCann and Emily J. Champagne
2: Species coexistence Peter Chesson
3: The synergistic effects of interaction strength and lags on ecological stability Gabriel Gellner, Kevin S. McCann and Christopher Greyson-Gaito
4: Non-equilibrium dynamics and stochastic processes Karen C. Abbott
5: The impact of population structure on population and community dynamics André M. de Roos
6: Models for large ecological communities - a random matrix approach Stefano Allesina and Jacopo Grilli
7: A structural theory of mutualistic networks Jordi Bascompte and Antonio Ferrera
8: A data driven approach to complex ecological systems Michio Kondoh, Kazutaka Kawatsu, Yutaka Osada and Masayuki Ushio
9: Trait-based models of complex ecological network Ulrich Brose
10: Ecological networks: from structure to dynamics Sonia Kéfi
11: Trait-based ecological and eco-evolutionary theory Christopher A. Klausmeier, Colin T. Kremer and Thomas Ko ffel
12: Toward a general theory of metacommunity ecology Dominique Gravel and François Massol
13: Theories of diversity in disease ecology T. Alex Perkins and Jason R. Rohr
14: Climate change: Studying the effects of temperature on population and community dynamics David A. Vasseur
15: Alternative stable states, tipping points, and early warning signals of ecological transitions John M. Drake, Suzanne M. O'Regan, Vasilis Dakos, Sonia Kéfi and Pejman Rohani
16: Areas of current and future growth Kevin S. McCann and Gabriel Gellner