New book published by Herman Verhoef on Community Ecology

Former SENSE General Director Herman Verhoef and his colleague Peter Morin are the editors of a new book on Community Ecology. The book is entitled 'Community Ecology - Processes, Models and Applications', and contains contributions of more than 20 ecologists. It is the result of the SENSE PhD course on this subject which took place in 2005!

The book is published by the Oxford University Press and can be ordered via this link: ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199228980.do.

The book:
- Incorporates the latest developments in the field, and complements the existing textbook literature on community ecology
- Is co-edited by two prominent community ecologists with contributions from the top researchers in the field
- Includes a mix of theoretical and applied chapters, as well as a balance of emerging and established research topics, albeit with a specific focus on food web and ecological network theory/models
- Indicates future research directions and provides ideal reference material for graduate seminar courses in community ecology
- Is based on a proven graduate teaching course

Community ecology is the study of the interactions between populations of co-existing species. This book provides a survey of the state-of-the-art in theory and applications of community ecology, with special attention to topology, dynamics, the importance of spatial and temporal scale, as well as applications to emerging problems in human-dominated ecosystems (including the restoration and reconstruction of viable communities). It adopts a mainly theoretical approach and focuses on the use of network-based theory which remains little explored in standard community ecology textbooks. The book includes discussion of the effects of biotic invasions on natural communities, the linking of ecological network structure to empirically measured community properties and dynamics, the effects of evolution on community patterns and processes, and the integration of fundamental interactions into ecological networks. A final chapter indicates future research directions for the discipline. This book provides ideal graduate seminar course material.