BookDavid G. Green, Nicholas I. Klomp, Glyn Rimmington, Suzanne Sadedin.
Summary: This book examines key concepts and analytical approaches in complexity theory as it applies to landscape ecology, including complex networks, connectivity, criticality, feedback, and self-organisation. It then reviews the ways that these ideas have led to new insights into the nature of ecosystems and the role of processes in landscapes. The updated edition explores innovations in ecotechnology, including automated monitoring, big data, simulation and machine learning, and shows how they are revolutionizing ecology by making it possible to deal more effectively with complexity. Addressing the topic in a progression of ideas from small to large, and from simple to sophisticated, the book examines the implications of complexity for major environmental issues of our time, particularly the urgencies of climate change and loss of biodiversity. Understanding ecological complexity is crucial in todays globalized and interconnected world. Successful management of the worlds ecosystems must combine models of ecosystem complexity with biodiversity, environmental, geographic, and socioeconomic data. The book examines the impact of humans on landscapes and ecosystems, as well as efforts to embed sustainability, commerce and industrial development in the larger context of ecosystem services and ecological economics. Well-established as researchers in the field, the authors provide a new perspective on current and future understanding of complexity in landscape ecology. The new edition offers a non-technical account of the topic, so it is both accessible and informative for general readers. For students of ecology, it provides a fresh approach to classical ideas.
Contents:
Intro
Preface to the Second Edition
Contents
Chapter 1: Complexity and Ecology
1.1 Introduction
1.2 What Is Complexity?
1.2.1 Variety and Form
1.2.2 The Chicken and the Egg
1.3 What Makes Ecosystems Complex?
1.3.1 Measuring Diversity
1.3.2 The Origins of Complexity
1.4 Why Study Ecological Complexity?
1.5 The Complexity Paradigm
1.5.1 Scientific Paradigms
1.5.2 A New Ecology for a New Age?
References
Chapter 2: Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Emergent Order in Growth and Behaviour
2.1 Plant Growth and Form
2.1.1 Factors Influencing Growth 2.1.2 Branches and Leaves
2.1.3 Overall Plant Form
2.1.4 Self-Organisation Versus Constrained Growth
2.2 Animal Behaviour
2.2.1 Searching for Food
2.2.2 Territory
2.2.3 Social Networks
2.2.4 Animal Intelligence
2.3 Multiagent Systems
2.3.1 Turtle Geometry
2.3.2 From Turtles to Agents
2.3.3 The Boids and the Bees
References
Chapter 3: Complexity in Landscapes
3.1 The Eye of the Beholder
3.1.1 Geographic Information Systems
3.1.2 The Game of Life
3.1.3 Cellular Automata Models of Landscapes
3.2 Sampling and Scale 3.3 Complexity in Spatial Processes
3.4 Complexity in Spatial Patterns
3.4.1 Fractal Dimensions
3.4.2 Fractals in Nature
3.4.3 Measuring Landscape Complexity
3.5 Are Landscapes Connected?
3.5.1 Connectivity in a Grid
3.5.2 Why Is a Starfish Like an Atomic Bomb?
References
Chapter 4: Oh, What a Tangled Web ... Complex Networks in Ecology
4.1 The Roots of Complexity Theory
4.2 The Network Model
4.2.1 Interactions and Connectivity
4.2.2 Networks
4.2.3 Networks Are Everywhere
4.2.4 The Connectivity Avalanche
4.2.5 Phase Changes and Criticality 4.2.6 The Order of Things
4.3 Self-Organisation
4.3.1 Emergent Properties
4.3.2 Modules and Motifs
4.3.3 The Shape of Complexity
4.4 Networks of Networks
References
Chapter 5: The Imbalance of Nature ... Feedback and Stability in Ecosystems
5.1 Feedback
5.1.1 Negative Feedback Promotes Stability
5.1.2 Positive Feedback Promotes Self-Organization
5.2 The Big Get Bigger
5.3 Who Eats Whom?
5.3.1 Equilibrium and Stability
5.3.2 Transients and Attractors
5.3.3 Sensitivity to Initial Conditions
5.3.4 The Onset of Chaos
5.3.5 Fractals 5.4 Is There a Balance of Nature?
5.4.1 Succession
5.4.2 Ecosystems in Balance?
5.4.3 Does a Balance Really Exist?
References
Chapter 6: Populations in Landscapes
6.1 One Population or Many?
6.2 Spatial Distributions
6.3 Patches, Edges and Zones
6.3.1 Salt of the Earth
6.4 To See the World in a Grain of Pollen
6.5 Galloping Trees?
6.6 Phylogeography
References
Chapter 7: Living with the Neighbours: Competition and Stability in Communities
7.1 Invasions and Persistence
7.2 Disturbance and Competition
7.3 Ecological Communities