This book results from a summer school held at Cornell University in
1992. The participants were graduate students and postdoctoral
researchers selected from a broad range of interests and backgrounds in
ecological studies. The summer school was the second in a continuing
series whose underlying aim- and the aim of this volume-is to bring
together the different methods and concepts underpinning terrestrial,
freshwater, and marine ecology. The first volume in the series focused
on patch dynamics in these three ecologi- cal sectors. Here we have
endeavored to complement that volume by extending its comparative
approach to the consideration of ecological time series. The types of
data and the methods of collection are necessarily very different in
these contrasting environments, yet the underlying concept and the
technical problems of analysis have much in common. It proved to be of
great interest and value to the summer school participants to see the
differences and then work through to an appreciation ofthe generalizable
concepts. We believe that such an approach must have value as well for a
much larger audience, and we have structured this volume to provide a
comparable reading experience.