Metacommunity Ecology, Volume 59

Mathew A. Leibold; Jonathan M. Chase

Published by Princeton University Press 2018

Metacommunity Ecology, Volume 59

Mathew A. Leibold and Jonathan M. Chase

Volume 59 in the series Monographs in Population Biology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400889068

Overview
Contents

About this book

Metacommunity ecology links smaller-scale processes that have been the provenance of population and community ecology—such as birth-death processes, species interactions, selection, and stochasticity—with larger-scale issues such as dispersal and habitat heterogeneity. Until now, the field has focused on evaluating the relative importance of distinct processes, with niche-based environmental sorting on one side and neutral-based ecological drift and dispersal limitation on the other. This book moves beyond these artificial categorizations, showing how environmental sorting, dispersal, ecological drift, and other processes influence metacommunity structure simultaneously.

Mathew Leibold and Jonathan Chase argue that the relative importance of these processes depends on the characteristics of the organisms, the strengths and types of their interactions, the degree of habitat heterogeneity, the rates of dispersal, and the scale at which the system is observed. Using this synthetic perspective, they explore metacommunity patterns in time and space, including patterns of coexistence, distribution, and diversity. Leibold and Chase demonstrate how these processes and patterns are altered by micro- and macroevolution, traits and phylogenetic relationships, and food web interactions. They then use this scale-explicit perspective to illustrate how metacommunity processes are essential for understanding macroecological and biogeographical patterns as well as ecosystem-level processes.

Moving seamlessly across scales and subdisciplines, Metacommunity Ecology is an invaluable reference, one that offers a more integrated approach to ecological patterns and processes.

Author / Editor information

Mathew A. Leibold is professor of biology at the University of Florida. Jonathan M. Chase is professor of biodiversity synthesis at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research. They are the authors of Ecological Niches: Linking Classical and Contemporary Approaches.

Reviews

"A highly significant contribution. Leibold and Chase provide an encompassing and critical overview of the current state of metacommunity ecology and discuss novel approaches, novel perspectives, and applications that contribute to a much broader framework. I learned a lot from this book."—Luc De Meester, University of Leuven

"Current thinking in ecology is a disorganized soup of ideas, from dispersal and spatial heterogeneity to temporal change, species sorting, and evolution. This book impressively pulls these disparate threads into a powerful and coherent framework based on metacommunities. Its next-generation metacommunity framework could well serve as a launching pad for the next decade of ecology."—Brian McGill, University of Maine

"Interesting and informative. Leibold and Chase have assembled in one volume recent key studies that show how metacommunity ecology is indeed wide-ranging in its scope."—Tadashi Fukami, Stanford University

"In this magisterial book, Leibold and Chase provide a conceptually coherent synthesis of the burgeoning field of metacommunity ecology. In addition to deftly synthesizing a sprawling literature on the role of dispersal limitation, drift, and interactions in metacommunities, they highlight the importance of linking metacommunity processes to evolutionary dynamics and ecosystem function. All ecologists will profit from careful reading of this fine and timely contribution."—Robert Holt, University of Florida

"Leibold and Chase have written an authoritative and accessible account of recent research on how spatially organized processes shape patterns of biological diversity over the ecological landscape. This book will be the springboard for future work in this area."—Robert E. Ricklefs, University of Missouri, St. Louis

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Metacommunity Ecology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Theories of Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
3. Processes in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
4. Metacommunity Patterns in Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
5. Interactions between Time and Space in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
6. What Can Functional Traits and Phylogenies Tell Us about Coexistence in Metacommunities? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
7. Combining Taxonomic and Functional- Trait Patterns to Disentangle Metacommunity Assembly Processes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
8. Eco- evolutionary Dynamics in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
9. Macroevolution in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
10. The Macroecology of Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
11. Food Webs in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
12. Community Assembly and the Functioning of Ecosystems in Metacommunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
13. From Metacommunities to Metaecosystems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
14. A Coming Transition in Metacommunity Ecology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	380
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	465