Ecological Reviews

Edited by Alan G. Hildrew, David G. Raffaelli, Ronni Edmonds-Brown
Published online:

02 December 2009

Print publication:

12 July 2007
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Ecologists have long struggled to predict features of ecological systems, such as the numbers and diversity of organisms. The wide range of body sizes in ecological communities, from tiny microbes to large animals and plants, is emerging as the key to prediction. Based on the relationship between body size and features such as biological rates, the physics of water and the amount of habitat available, we may be able to understand patterns of abundance and diversity, biogeography, interactions in food webs and the impact of fishing, adding up to a potential 'periodic table' for ecology. Remarkable progress on the unravelling, describing and modelling of aquatic food webs, revealing the fundamental role of body size, makes a book emphasising marine and freshwater ecosystems particularly apt. In this 2007 book, the importance of body size is examined at a range of scales that will be of interest to professional ecologists, from students to senior researchers.

Edited by Richard Bardgett, Michael Usher, David Hopkins
Published online:

17 September 2009

Print publication:

22 September 2005
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Soil has generally been regarded as something of a 'black box' by ecologists. The importance of soil is obvious: it provides physical support for plants, and both the living and non-living components contribute to a variety of important environmental functions. Soil is a species-rich habitat, but many questions about the ecological significance of the soil's biological diversity, and in particular how it affects ecosystem function, have never been asked. The linkages between above-ground ecology, which is rich in ecological theory, and below-ground ecology, where investigation has been restricted by methodological difficulties, have not been made. Technical developments, including isotopic and molecular methods as well as experimental and modelling approaches, have led to a renaissance in soil biodiversity research. The key areas are reflected in this exciting volume which brings together many leading contributors to explore the role and importance of soil biota.

Their Role in the Maintenance of Species Diversity
Edited by David Burslem, Michelle Pinard, Sue Hartley
Published online:

25 August 2009

Print publication:

08 September 2005
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Tropical ecosystems house a significant proportion of global biodiversity. To understand how these ecosystems function we need to appreciate not only what plants, animals and microbes they contain, but also how they interact with each other. This volume, first published in 2005, synthesises the state of knowledge in this area, with chapters providing reviews or case studies drawn from research conducted in both Old and New World tropics and including biotic interactions among taxa at all trophic levels. In most chapters plants (typically trees) are the starting point, but, taken together, the chapters consider interactions of plants with other plants, with micro-organisms and with animals, and the inter-relationships of human-induced disturbance with interactions among species. An underlying theme of the volume is the attempt to understand the maintenance of high diversity in tropical regions, which remains one of the most significant unexplained observations in ecological studies.

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