Theoretical Ecology

Description

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.

• Direct successor to Robert M. May's classic sequence of field-defining books
• Adopts a modern, synthetic, applied approach to the topic, uniting historical perspectives with modern theory and integrated data
• Develops applications for current issues including global change
• Foreword by Robert D. Holt

About the Author(s)

Edited by Kevin S. McCann, Professor, University of Guelph, Canada, and Gabriel Gellner, Postdoctoral Researcher, Colorado State University, USA

Kevin McCann joined the faculty at the University of Guelph in 2003 as a Canadian Research Chair in Biodiversity after starting his career at McGill University in 1999. McCann is a leading theoretical ecologist with an expertise in food webs. McCann combines theoretical ecology with experimental and empirical work across aquatic ecosystems (lakes, rivers and coastal marine ecosystems). His research seeks to examine the biological structure underlying diversity and the critical relationship between this structure, ecosystem function and stability. In 2013, McCann was elected lifetime fellow to the Ecological Society of America for research achievements.

Gabriel Gellner is a researcher at the University of Guelph, having completed his PhD in 2014. Gellner is a theoretical ecologist with wide ranging interests in food webs, mathematical and computational methods, and disease ecology. Gellner has worked with leading scientists in North America (University of Guelph, UC Davis, Colorado State, USDA) and internationally (Japan, Brazil, UK). His work looks at how complex networks can be decomposed into fundamental dynamic subsystems from a conceptual and methodological perspective.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction Gabriel Gellner, Kevin S. McCann & 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 & 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 & Jacopo Grilli
7: A structural theory of mutualistic networks Jordi Bascompte & Antonio Ferrera
8: A data driven approach to complex ecological systems Michio Kondoh, Kazutaka Kawatsu, Yutaka Osada & 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 & Thomas Koffel
12: Toward a general theory of metacommunity ecology Dominique Gravel & François Massol
13: Theories of diversity in disease ecology T. Alex Perkins & 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 & Pejman Rohani
16: Areas of current and future growth Kevin S. McCann & Gabriel Gellner

Reviews

"A great and condensed overview of the state of the art including currently unresolved questions and challenges. Accordingly, the book will be extremely useful for scientists who are ready to establish their own research agenda in mathematically-oriented theoretical ecology." - Felix May, Basic and Applied Ecology

"This volume provides a valuable introduction to the field of theoretical ecology, and some interesting thoughts about its future." - Frederick R. Adler, University of Utah, The Quarterly Review of Biology