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Human impacts are dramatically altering our natural ecosystems but the exact repercussions on ecological sustainability and function remain unclear. As a result, food web theory has experienced a proliferation of research seeking to address these critical areas. Arguing that the various recent and classical food web theories can be looked at collectively and in a highly consistent and testable way, Food Webs synthesizes and reconciles modern and classical perspectives into a general unified theory. Kevin McCann brings together outcomes from population-, community-, and ecosystem-level approaches under the common currency of energy or material fluxes. He shows that these approaches--often studied in isolation--all have the same general implications in terms of population dynamic stability. Specifically, increased fluxes of energy or material tend to destabilize populations, communities, and whole ecosystems. With this understanding, stabilizing structures at different levels of the ecological hierarchy can be identified and any population-, community-, or ecosystem-level structures that mute energy or material flow also stabilize systems dynamics. McCann uses this powerful general framework to discuss the effects of human impact on the stability and sustainability of ecological systems, and he demonstrates that there is clear empirical evidence that the structures supporting ecological systems have been dangerously eroded. Uniting the latest research on food webs with classical theories, this book will be a standard source in the understanding of natural food web functions.

SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology / General. --- SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Ecology. --- Biotic communities. --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Biocenoses --- Biocoenoses --- Biogeoecology --- Biological communities --- Biomes --- Biotic community ecology --- Communities, Biotic --- Community ecology, Biotic --- Ecological communities --- Ecosystems --- Natural communities --- Ecology --- Population biology --- Food webs (Ecology) --- Trophic ecology --- Animals --- Nutrient cycles --- Food --- Canadian Shield. --- Gershgorin discs. --- Hopf bifurcation. --- Robert Holt. --- adaptive behavior. --- alternative stable states. --- aquatic microcosm. --- asynchrony. --- bifurcation. --- bird feeder effect. --- body size. --- competition. --- consumers. --- consumerвesource dynamics. --- consumerвesource interactions. --- consumerвesource models. --- consumerвesource theory. --- continuous logistic growth models. --- detritus. --- diamond food web. --- discrete equations. --- dynamical systems theory. --- dynamical systems. --- ecological instability. --- ecological stability. --- ecological systems. --- ecosystem collapse. --- ecosystem dynamics. --- ecosystem size. --- ecosystem stability. --- ecosystems. --- eigenvalue. --- equilibrium steady state. --- equilibrium. --- excitable interactions. --- food chains. --- food web structure. --- food web theory. --- food webs. --- foraging. --- generalism. --- generalists. --- grazing. --- habitat. --- human impacts. --- interaction strength. --- intraguild predation model. --- lags. --- lake trout. --- local stability analysis. --- matrix theory. --- microcosm experiments. --- mobile adaptive predators. --- modular theory. --- module. --- motif. --- natural ecosystems. --- nature. --- nonequilibrium dynamics. --- nonequilibrium steady state. --- nonexcitable interactions. --- nutrient decomposition. --- nutrient recycling. --- nutrients. --- omnivory. --- oscillation. --- oscillatory decay. --- phase space. --- population dynamics. --- population growth. --- population models. --- population structure. --- populations. --- resources. --- space. --- species. --- stage structure. --- stage-structured lags. --- subsidies. --- subsystems. --- sustainability. --- time series. --- trade-offs. --- traits. --- whole-community approach. --- whole-system matrix.

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Rising temperatures are affecting organisms in all of Earth's biomes, but the complexity of ecological responses to climate change has hampered the development of a conceptually unified treatment of them. In a remarkably comprehensive synthesis, this book presents past, ongoing, and future ecological responses to climate change in the context of two simplifying hypotheses, facilitation and interference, arguing that biotic interactions may be the primary driver of ecological responses to climate change across all levels of biological organization. Eric Post's synthesis and analyses of ecological consequences of climate change extend from the Late Pleistocene to the present, and through the next century of projected warming. His investigation is grounded in classic themes of enduring interest in ecology, but developed around novel conceptual and mathematical models of observed and predicted dynamics. Using stability theory as a recurring theme, Post argues that the magnitude of climatic variability may be just as important as the magnitude and direction of change in determining whether populations, communities, and species persist. He urges a more refined consideration of species interactions, emphasizing important distinctions between lateral and vertical interactions and their disparate roles in shaping responses of populations, communities, and ecosystems to climate change.

Climatic changes. --- Bioclimatology. --- Bioclimatics --- Biometeorology --- Climatology --- Ecology --- Changes, Climatic --- Changes in climate --- Climate change --- Climate change science --- Climate changes --- Climate variations --- Climatic change --- Climatic changes --- Climatic fluctuations --- Climatic variations --- Global climate changes --- Global climatic changes --- Climate change mitigation --- Teleconnections (Climatology) --- Environmental aspects --- Environmental aspects. --- Bioclimatology --- Global environmental change --- Industrial Revolution. --- Late Pleistocene. --- PleistoceneЈolocene transition. --- abiotic changes. --- abiotic compartments. --- abiotic conditions. --- amphibian breeding. --- biodiversity. --- biome shifts. --- biotic compartments. --- biotic interaction. --- character displacement. --- climate change ecology. --- climate change. --- climatic fluctuation. --- climatic variability. --- coexistence. --- community composition. --- community dynamics. --- community stability. --- competitive interactions. --- density-dependent processes. --- density-independent processes. --- diminishing land ice. --- diminishing sea ice. --- ecological dynamics. --- ecological theory. --- ecology. --- ecosystem carbon dynamics. --- ecosystem components. --- ecosystem dynamics. --- ecosystem function. --- ecosystem respiration. --- ecosystem stability. --- ecosystems. --- egg laying. --- emigration. --- environmental disturbance. --- environmental variability. --- environmental variation. --- extinction. --- facilitation. --- flowering. --- habitat utilization patterns. --- immigration. --- interference. --- life history. --- mass extinctions. --- migration. --- net ecosystem production. --- net primary productivity. --- niche concept. --- niche overlap. --- niche packing. --- niche theory. --- phenological dynamics. --- phenological events. --- phenology. --- plant emergence. --- population dynamics. --- population stability. --- quantitative ecology. --- rapid climate change. --- rapid warming. --- rising temperature. --- speciation. --- species assemblages. --- species distributions. --- species diversity. --- species losses. --- stability theory. --- stochastic environments. --- temperature variability.