Food Webs: Integration of Patterns and Dynamics

xiv, 472, text figs. . HB. Fine. From the library of Prof. J. Green (1928-2016) with his name to endpaper. Food-web research has recently experienced a surge of activity fueled by new empirical data and innovative theories. Over the past decade and a half, food web has been equated to a large extent with food-web theory, a body of explanations for regularities observed in the features of simple food webs reported in the literature. In recent years, it has become clear that real food webs are much more complex and dynamic than was portrayed by earlier studies. Current research documents the complexity and variability of food webs, and seeks to explain patterns in the structure and function of food webs. Moreover, the integration of food-web patterns with ecological dynamics has become a major goal that ultimately will link food webs with other levels of the biological hierarchy. Major issues covered by the book include: the role of nutrients, detritus and microbes in food webs; indirect effects in food webs; the interaction of productivity and consumption; linking cause and effect in food webs; temporal and spatial scales of food-web dynamics; applications of food webs to pest management, fisheries, and ecosystem stress. The book contains numerous tables, figures, and mathematical equations that are reported nowhere else in the literature. The book contains the review and synthesis of developments in the field of food web research. The book is organized into six sections. Each of the five sections of contributed chapters contain a brief introductory chapter that actually is a minireview. The sixth section contains three in-depth synthesis chapters: the role of indirect effects; productivity and consumer regulation;and temporal, spatial, and life history influences on food webs. This book should be of interest to graduate students and researchers in ecology, forestry, natural resources, environmental science, wildlife, fisheries, biology and zoology with an interest in community and ecosystem ecology. [9780412040511].…