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"Human impacts are dramatically altering our natural ecosystems. The implications of these human impacts on the sustainability and functioning of these amazingly complex entities remains uncertain. As a result, food web theory has experienced a proliferation of research that seeks to address this critical area. This book synthesizes modern and classical results into a general theory. Finally, this book takes this general theoretical framework and discusses the implications of human impact for the stability and sustainability of ecological systems"--

This book continues the authoritative and established sequence of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert M. May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories.

Presenting new approaches to studying food webs, this book uses practical management and policy examples to demonstrate the theory behind ecosystem management decisions and the broader issue of sustainability. All the information that readers need to use food web analyses as a tool for understanding and quantifying transition processes is provided. Advancing the idea of food webs as complex adaptive systems, readers are challenged to rethink how changes in environmental conditions affect these systems. Beginning with the current state of thinking about community organisation, complexity and stability, the book moves on to focus on the traits of organisms, the adaptive nature of communities and their impacts on ecosystem function. The final section of the book addresses the applications to management and sustainability. By helping to understand the complexities of multispecies networks, this book provides insights into the evolution of organisms and the fate of ecosystems in a changing world.