Invading Ecological Networks

Proposes new ways of managing ecological invasions by implementing an open adaptive network framework for ecosystem transformation.

Cang Hui (Author), David Richardson (Author)

9781108478618, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 2022

442 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.4 cm, 0.86 kg

Until now, biological invasions have been conceptualised and studied mainly as a linear process: from introduction to establishment to spread. This volume charts a new course for the field, drawing on key developments in network ecology and complexity science. It defines an agenda for Invasion Science 2.0 by providing new framings and classification of research topics and by offering tentative solutions to vexing problems. In particular, it conceptualises a transformative ecosystem as an open adaptive network with critical transitions and turnover, with resident species heuristically learning and fine-tuning their niches and roles in a multiplayer eco-evolutionary game. It erects signposts pertaining to network interactions, structures, stability, dynamics, scaling, and invasibility. It is not a recipe book or a road map, but an atlas of possibilities: a 'hitchhiker's guide'.

1. Invasion science 1.0
2. Relentless evolution
3. Network assembly
4. Regimes and panarchy
5. Network transitions
6. Network scaling
7. Rethinking invasibility.

Subject Areas: Conservation of wildlife & habitats [RNKH], Environmental management [RNF], Plant ecology [PSTS], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF]