This collection of papers addresses a variety of problems and approaches for predicting spatial effects in ecological systems. The central themes are the characterization of effects, exploration of mechanisms, and understanding of consequences of spatial heterogeneity on ecological systems. Discussed here are the spatial dynamics of natural systems and the impact of economic and sociological changes, as well as recent adaptation methods from statistical lattice physics.Progress in dealing with spatial effects in ecological systems is accelerating as faster computers access the extensive data sets available from remote sensing. The new mathematical approaches presented here will be especially useful for identifying the effect of landscape change on ecosystem productivity and sustainability. Balancing theoretical development and empirical testing, this book provides an excellent introduction to the scope and scale of issues to be addressed in predicting change in ecological systems. Mathematicians and ecologists interested in these issues will find this book useful, and individual chapters will be of interest to physicists, econometricians, landscape ecologists, and human ecologists.
