Aquatic Food Webs: An Ecosystem Approach

Description: This volume provides a current synthesis of theoretical and empirical food web research. Whether they are binary systems or weighted networks, food webs are of particular interest to ecologists in providing a macroscopic view of ecosystems. They describe interactions between species and their environment, and subsequent advances in the understanding of their structure, function, and dynamics are of vital importance to ecosystem management and conservation. 'Aquatic Food Webs' provides a synthesis of the current issues in food web theory and its applications, covering issues of structure, function, scaling, complexity, and stability in the contexts of conservation, fisheries, and climate. Although the focus of this volume is upon aquatic food webs (where many of the recent advances have been made), any ecologist with an interest in food web theory and its applications will find the issues addressed in this book of value and use. This advanced textbook is suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers in community, ecosystem, and theoretical ecology, in aquatic ecology, and in conservation biology. Review: This book gives a good background for all those interested in the theory and modelling aspects of aquatic food webs. There are certainly lessons to be learnt here for many. Journal of Plankton Research, Volume 28, Number 10 This is an important synthesis for foodweb ecologists to read and an accessible text for other ecologists. Mark Young, Bulletin of the British Ecological Society 2006, 37:1 Graduate students and professionals interested in communities and ecosystems, particularly those who work on food webs or in aquatic systems, will be well served to take a look at this book. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, April 2006. Table of Contents: Foreword; Introduction; 1. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION; 1. Biosimplicity via stoichiometry: the evolution of food-web structure and processes; 2. Spatial structure and dynamics in a marine food web; 3. Role of network analysis in comparative ecosystem ecology of estuaries; 4. Food webs in lakes - seasonal dynamics and impact of climate variability; 5. Pattern and process in food webs: evidence from running waters; 2. EXAMINING FOOD WEB THEORIES; 6. Some random thoughts on the statistical analysis of food web data; 7. Analysis of size and complexity of randomly constructed food webs by information theoretic metrics; 8. Size-based analyses of aquatic food webs; 9. Complexity in aquatic food webs: an ecosystem approach; 3. STABILITY AND DIVERSITY IN FOOD WEBS; 10. Modelling food-web dynamics: complexity-stability implications; 11. Is biodiversity maintained by food-web complexity? - The adaptive food-web hypothesis; 12. Climate forcing, food web structure, and community dynamics in pelagic marine ecosystems; 13. Food web theory provides guidelines for marine conservation; 14. Biodiversity and aquatic food webs; 4. CONCLUDING REMARKS; 15. Ecological network analysis: an escape from the machine; Afterword; References; Index