Evolutionary Community Ecology develops a unified framework for
understanding the structure of ecological communities and the dynamics
of natural selection that shape the evolution of the species inhabiting
them. All species engage in interactions with many other species, and
these interactions regulate their abundance, define their trajectories
of natural selection, and shape their movement decisions. Mark McPeek
synthesizes the ecological and evolutionary dynamics generated by
species interactions that structure local biological communities and
regional metacommunities.
McPeek explores the ecological performance characteristics needed for
invasibility and coexistence of species in complex networks of species
interactions. This species interaction framework is then extended to
examine the ecological dynamics of natural selection that drive
coevolution of interacting species in these complex interaction
networks. The models of natural selection resulting from species
interactions are used to evaluate the ecological conditions that foster
diversification at multiple trophic levels. Analyses show that
diversification depends on the ecological context in which species
interactions occur and the types of traits that define the mechanisms of
those species interactions. Lastly, looking at the mechanisms of
speciation that affect species richness and diversity at various spatial
scales and the consequences of past climate change over the Quaternary
period, McPeek considers how metacommunity structure is shaped at
regional and biogeographic scales.
Integrating evolutionary theory into the study of community ecology,
Evolutionary Community Ecology provides a new framework for predicting
how communities are organized and how they may change over time.
