Community ecology / Gary G. Mittelbach.

includes index.

Includes bibliographical references.

Community Ecology's Roots -- PART I. THE BIG PICTURE: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences of Biodiversity -- Patterns of Biological Diversity -- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning -- PART II. THE NITTY-GRITTY: Species Interactions in Simple Modules -- Population Growth and Density Dependence -- The Fundamentals of Predator-Prey Interactions -- Selective Predators and Responsive Prey -- Interspecific Competition: Simple Theory -- Competition in Nature: Empirical Patterns and Tests of Theory -- Beneficial Interactions in Communities: Mutualism and Facilitation -- PART III. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: Food Webs and Ecological Networks -- Species Interactions in Ecological Networks -- Food Chains and Food Webs: Controlling Factors and Cascading Effects -- PART IV. SPATIAL ECOLOGY: Metapopulations and Metacommunities -- Patchy Environments, Metapopulations, and Fugitive Species -- Metacommunities and the Neutral Theory -- PART V. SPECIES IN CHANGING ENVIRONMENTS:Ecology and Evolution -- Species Coexistence in Variable Environments -- Evolutionary Community Ecology -- Some Concluding Remarks and a Look Ahead.

Community Ecology is a book for graduate students, researchers, and advanced undergraduates seeking a broad, up-to-date coverage of ecological concepts at the community level. Community ecology has undergone a transformation in recent years, from a discipline largely focused on processes occurring within a local area to a discipline encompassing a much richer domain of study, including the linkages between communities separated in space (metacommunity dynamics), niche and neutral theory, the interplay between ecology and evolution (eco-evolutionary dynamics), and the influence of historical and regional processes in shaping patterns of biodiversity.