Null Models in Ecology is the first detailed overview of this complex and controversial subject. The authors address the major issues in community ecology that have arisen in the last three decades and thoroughly explains the conceptual and mathematical bases of various null models. Chapter by chapter, the book takes up the significant areas of research to which null model analyses have been applied- including niche overlap, community assembly, the species-area relationship, and food web structure.

The most detailed coverage is devoted to the heart of null model controversies: analyses of size ratios and co-occurrence patterns. Throughout, the authors address such themes as the distinction between nonrandom patterns and the mechanisms that produce them; the relative merits of conventional statistical tests and Monte Carlo simulations; and problems of redundancy and statistical independence.

Steering a thoughtful and objective course through some of the most contentious ongoing debates in the field, the authors argue that, used with care and an awareness of limitations, null models can be a sophisticated and powerful method of answering ecological questions.

368 pages, 108 black & white illustrations.

Cloth: ISBM 1-56098-657-3 $65.00
Paper: ISBN 1-560989-645-X $30.00

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