Spatiotemporal Models of Population and Community Dynamics

A comprehensive survey of spatiotemporal models in population and community dynamics is covered in this book. Historically there has been a division between model-orientated population dynamics and the field-orientated practice of biosociology, with each discipline developing their own attitudes and methodologies, and with minimal reference to each others results. This book addresses the need for ecologists to examine the mutual dependence of spatial structure and temporal dynamics in population and community studies. It looks at models in a broadly historical order, beginning in Part One with four classical model types, questioning why they always assume mass-interaction within populations. Part Two covers population dynamical applications of spatial object-interaction systems, which move away from the classical approach in a very important respect by allowing for the interaction of discrete, spatial objects. Assessing the models in this way reveals their development and the general decrease in spatiotemporal scale, the increase in the number of biological facts considered and the growing importance of numerical techniques in their analysis.This book should be of interest to lecturers, senior lecturers, and researchers in theoretical or field ecology institutions.