This book presents current meta-ecosystem models and their derivation
from classical ecosystem and metapopulation theories. Specifically, it
reviews recent modelling efforts that have emphasized the role of
nonlinear dynamics on spatial and food web networks, and which have cast
their implications within the context of spatial synchrony and
ecological stoichiometry. It suggests that these recent advances
naturally lead to a generalization of meta-ecosystem theories to spatial
fluxes of matter that have both a trophic and non-trophic impact on
species.
Ecosystem dynamics refers to the cycling of matter and energy across
ecological compartments through processes such as consumption and
recycling. Spatial dynamics established its ecological roots with
metapopulation theories and focuses on scaling up local ecological
processes through the limited movement of individuals and matter. Over
the last 15 years, theories integrating ecosystem and spatial dynamics
have quickly coalesced into meta-ecosystem theories, the focus of this
book.
The book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers who
wish to learn more about the synthesis of ecosystem and spatial
dynamics, which form the foundation of the theory of meta-ecosystems.