Resolving ecosystem complexity

1. Introduction

Philosophical musings

Explaining contingency: a worldview

Contingency and emergence

Preparing the mind for discovery

Structure of the book

2. Conceptualizing ecosystem structure

Abstracting complexity

Whole system vs. building blocks approach

Defining species interaction modules

Identifying interaction modules in a grassland ecosystem

Conception of ecosystem structure

3. Trophic dynamics: why is the world green?

Trophic control as an emergent property of resource limitation

Explaining contingency in trophic control of ecosystem function

The nature of resource limitation and trophic control of food chains

The mechanism switching hypothesis of trophic control

Effects of herbivore feeding mode

Collective effects of herbivore species with different feeding modes

Plant-antiherbivore defense and strength of trophic control

Herbivore resource selection and ecosystem function

Stoichiometry and herbivore resource use

Resource selection and ecosystem function

Herbivore indirect effects and engineering of green worlds

Herbivore-mediated carnivore indirect effects on ecosystems

Carnivore indirect effects on plant diversity

Carnivore indirect effects on ecosystem function

4. The green world and the brown chain

Conceptualizing functions along detritus-based chains

Resource limitation and trophic control

Trophic control of decomposition

Trophic control of mineralization

Mechanisms of top-down control

Trophic coupling between detritus-based and plant-based chains

5. The evolutionary ecology of trophic control in ecosystems

Carnivore species and the nature of trophic interactions in an old-field system

Carnivore hunting mode and the nature of trophic interactions

The evolutionary ecology of trophic cascades

6. The whole and the parts

Developing predictive theory for emergence

Contingency and carnivore diversity effects on ecosystems

Carnivore diversity and emergent effects on ecosystem function

Shifting down one trophic level: intermediate species diversity and ecosystem function

Herbivore diversity and mediation of top-down control of ecosystem function

Detritivore diversity and mediation of top-down control of ecosystem function

The basal trophic level: plant diversity and ecosystem function

Functional classifications

Resource identity effects on trophic interactions

Moving forward on functional diversity and ecosystem function

7. The ecological theater and the evolutionary ecological play

Phenotypic variation and state-dependent trade-offs

Attacked plants attract predators

Predators that avoid predation

The nonconsumptive basis of trophic transfer efficiencies

Trophic interactions in a changing theater

Rapid change in hunting strategy

Landscapes of fear and ecosystem management.