Spatial Ecology addresses the fundamental effects of space on the
dynamics of individual species and on the structure, dynamics,
diversity, and stability of multispecies communities. Although the
ecological world is unavoidably spatial, there have been few attempts to
determine how explicit considerations of space may alter the predictions
of ecological models, or what insights it may give into the causes of
broad-scale ecological patterns. As this book demonstrates, the spatial
structure of a habitat can fundamentally alter both the qualitative and
quantitative dynamics and outcomes of ecological processes.Spatial
Ecology highlights the importance of space to five topical areas:
stability, patterns of diversity, invasions, coexistence, and pattern
generation. It illustrates both the diversity of approaches used to
study spatial ecology and the underlying similarities of these
approaches. Over twenty contributors address issues ranging from the
persistence of endangered species, to the maintenance of biodiversity,
to the dynamics of hosts and their parasitoids, to disease dynamics,
multispecies competition, population genetics, and fundamental processes
relevant to all these cases. There have been many recent advances in our
understanding of the influence of spatially explicit processes on
individual species and on multispecies communities. This book
synthesizes these advances, shows the limitations of traditional,
non-spatial approaches, and offers a variety of new approaches to
spatial ecology that should stimulate ecological research.
