Community Ecology

Rating:

Peter J Morin. 2011. Community Ecology 2e. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 4051 2411 9.

Whereas much ecology teaching is focussed on single populations, community ecology (interactions of two or more species) is gaining ground especially as we need to look at more complex interactions. Although it sounds a legitimate area of study, community ecology is not universally accepted and although this is the second edition (the first being published in 1999) it should still be regarded as a relative newcomer to ecology.

That being said, the author clearly doesn’t share those views as he has been a prolific writer of community-ecology texts! He argues that it’s the interactions of sets of populations that can influence ecosystem properties and functions: one only has to consider research into emergent properties of ecosystems to see the arguments behind this. This text is aimed at graduate students with some knowledge of ecology rather than the complete tyro. Part 1 looks at the basic patterns an processes. An opening chapter looks at what makes a community and how it varies in space and diversity. Since competition must be a fundamental reaction between species, it’s reasonable that this forms a second and third chapter. The difference between the two is profound. The former deals with theoretical models – a highly mathematical treatment largely based on the ideas behind non-linear dynamics and chaos theory. The latter is a more conventional exploration into methods of observation and empiricism. These ideas, reversed, follow in the subsequent chapters where the focus is on predation rather than competition. It could reasonably be argued that these two come together in food webs explored as both empirical and mathematical models here. Two final chapters round of this section. The first looks at mutualism, the final species-species interaction to be covered and the second, at indirect effects, those elements that impact a third species when two others interact.

Part two focusses on those factors which influence interactions. First off here are the temporal effects where reactions change with the seasons – predator avoidance, resource partitioning etc. We also need to consider priority effects  – where an initial species can help/hinder later arrivals and the ever-controversial assembly rules which is similar but suggests more of a set formula. Habitat selection suggests that a species’ location can be as important as its trophic relationships. It might, for example, explain why a species is absent form an otherwise suitable area. After temporal; issues we have spatial ones (although they cannot really be completely separated. Here the argument is to see how habitat construction, location and extent can influence species distributions. Finally, part three looks cat the broadest scales, to  those phenomena that influence integration. The first chapter here looks at diversity, how it is caused and what impact it will have on the ecosystem dynamics. There is much focus on non-linear dynamics here. Pausing to discuss succession, the text finishes with a small chapter aimed at putting community ecology to practical side by showcasing areas e.g. fisheries, where it can be used.

This is a very good text which continues to develop ideas of community ecology and establish it as an important and integral part of the overall subject of ecology. It is very clearly a text for the advanced user who will find much of interest especially in the areas of mathematical ecology.