The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic areas in contemporary ecology. Increasing domination of ecosystems by humans is steadily transforming them into depauperate systems. How will this loss of biodiversity affect the functioning and stability of natural and managed ecosystems? This volume provides the first comprehensive and balanced coverage of recent empirical and theoretical research on this question. It reviews the evidence, provides bases for the resolution of the debate that has divided scientists on these...

The major subdisciplines of ecology--population ecology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and evolutionary ecology--have diverged increasingly in recent decades. What is critically needed today is an integrated, real-world approach to ecology that reflects the interdependency of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. From Populations to Ecosystems proposes an innovative theoretical synthesis that will enable us to advance our fundamental understanding of ecological systems and help us to respond to today's emerging global ecological crisis.

Michel Loreau begins by...

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource depletion, new emerging diseases: scientists have raised awareness on the ecological and societal consequences of the unbridled development of human activities for a long time. Why do we keep destroying nature when science makes it clear that in doing so we risk our own destruction? How can we stop destroying our life-support system and reach some kind of harmony between humans and nature? This book seeks to answer these questions. It describes the inability of modern society to fundamentally modify its relationship with nature, instead...