Complexity in Landscape Ecology

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
		7.3.1 Do Ecological Communities Exist?
	7.4 Networks of Interactions
		7.4.1 Food Webs
		7.4.2 Networks
		7.4.3 The Paradox of Stability
		7.4.4 Stability and Food Webs
		7.4.5 Resilience
	References
Chapter 8: Adaptation in Landscapes
	8.1 Genes and Selection
		8.1.1 Evolutionary Trade-Off
	8.2 Genetics in Heterogeneous Landscapes
		8.2.1 Adaptation on a Gradient
		8.2.2 Fragmentation and Drift
		8.2.3 Friends and Relations
	8.3 Catastrophes, Criticality and Macroevolution
		8.3.1 Mass Extinctions
		8.3.2 Landscape Phases and the Origin of Species
	References
Chapter 9: Virtual Worlds: The Role of Simulation in Ecology
	9.1 Virtual Experiments
		9.1.1 From Landscapes to Virtual Worlds
		9.1.2 The Need for Simulation
		9.1.3 A World Inside a Computer?
		9.1.4 The Limits to Growth Model
		9.1.5 Just So Stories?
	9.2 What Is Artificial Life?
		9.2.1 Tierra
		9.2.2 Daisyworld
	9.3 From Virtual to Real
		9.3.1 Swarm
		9.3.2 SmartForest
		9.3.3 NetLogo
		9.3.4 Computer Games
	9.4 Virtual Reality
	References
Chapter 10: Digital Ecology: New Technologies Are Revolutionizing Ecology
	10.1 Information and Complexity
	10.2 From Field Work to Ecotechnology
		10.2.1 Traditional Ecology
		10.2.2 New Sources of Data
		10.2.3 Monitoring
	10.3 Sharing Ecological Information
		10.3.1 Data Warehouses and Repositories
		10.3.2 From Informatics to e-Ecology
		10.3.3 Many Hands Make Light Work
		10.3.4 Quality not Quantity
		10.3.5 Crowd Projects
	10.4 Coping with Complex Ecological Information
		10.4.1 Putting IT to Work
		10.4.2 Applying Geographic Information
		10.4.3 Complexity in Land-Use Planning
		10.4.4 Serendipity
		10.4.5 Modelling Species Distributions
	10.5 Biodiversity Information
	References
Chapter 11: The Global Picture: Limits to Growth Versus Growth Without Limits
	11.1 Humans and the Global Environment
		11.1.1 The Fall of Civilisations
		11.1.2 Were the Elders Wise?
	11.2 Global Climate Change
		11.2.1 The Runaway Greenhouse
		11.2.2 Climate Change and Denial
		11.2.3 Ecological Effects of Global Warming
	11.3 An Environmental Crisis
	11.4 Globalisation
	11.5 The Changing Nature of Conservation
	11.6 The Future
		11.6.1 The Challenge of Economics
		11.6.2 Some Final Lessons
	References
Index