Food Webs (MPB-50)

(Paperback)

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Description

Arguing that various classical food web theories can be looked at collectively and in a consistent and testable way, this book synthesizes modern and classical perspectives into a general unified theory. It brings together outcomes from population, community, and ecosystem-level approaches under the common currency of energy or material fluxes.

Reviews

"This is a must-read for ecologists interested in ecosystem dynamics."--Choice "This is potentially an indispensable book for ecologists and paleoecologists alike, synthesizing food-web theory and outcomes from population-level up to whole-ecosystem-level approaches. McCann offers clear explanations of the dynamics of food webs using a mathematical approach, and while the book will be of particular use to graduate students, it may also be of substantial use to undergraduate students as an advanced but very thorough introduction to the subject."--Jo Hellawell, Priscum "Food Webs is an imaginative but very concise book in terms of methodology and selection of concepts. It is extremely coherent, though some may think extremely selective in the models and concepts used. But to build a food web theory across different scales of organization, from single populations to real multispecies interaction networks, this selectivity is needed, and the unifying concept of stability makes it fascinating."--Jose M. Montoya, Ecology "[T]his is a very exciting book that communicates theoretical concepts to a broad ecological audience. In addition, the overview over the countless seminal studies by McCann and co-workers make this book unique and a highly recommended read for all ecologists."--Ulrich Brose, Basic & Applied Ecology

Author Bio

Kevin S. McCann is associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Guelph.