A Framework for Community Ecology

Paul A. Keddy is an independent researcher who has taught community ecology for more than 30 years. Paul conducted award-winning research on environmental factors controlling plant communities and their manipulation to enhance native biodiversity. He delights in bringing science alive for his audience. Author of six books winning three scientific prizes, he also co-edited Ecological Assembly Rules: Perspectives, Advances and Retreats (Cambridge University Press, 1999). Daniel C. Laughlin is an Associate Professor of plant ecology and ecological modelling in the Department of Botany at the University of Wyoming. Daniel's research focuses on developing quantitative approaches to understand and predict how plant species and communities respond to global change. His lab develops trait-based models that translate ecological processes into statistical frameworks to predict how communities assemble along environmental gradients and how species interact at local scales.

'… this book opens many intriguing questions about the theoretical framework of community ecology … The rather idiosyncratic positions expressed by the authors may be stimulating for a broad audience of ecologists, even (perhaps especially) for those who disagree. It is exactly the unusual character of this book that makes it particularly interesting.' Simone Fattorini, Community Ecology

• Preface; 1. A general framework for community ecology; 2. Filters; 3. Species pools; 4. Traits; 5. Trait-environment interactions; 6. Functional groups; 7. Predictive models of community assembly; 8. Prospects and possibilities; References; Index.