Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems (Monographs in Population Biology, No. 6)

By Robert M. May

Book Overview

One of the most important and most difficult problems posed by academic ecologists is the relationship between the complexity of interconnections in a "food web" and the degree to which a given community can either resist invasions by members of nearby communities or can recover from the various indignities imposed by climate or man. Analysis of that problem is the essence of Robert May's book. While opposing the contention that complexity by itself increases stability, he examines also those biological details that could conceivably account for the marked stability of complex ecological systems.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691081301
• ISBN13: 9780691081304
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

a classic

A facsimile reprinting of the 1974 Second Edition. It is great that Princeton University Press has made again available this classic work in mathematical biology. There is a wealth of mathematical ideas and methods, carefully written. Several Appendices provide additional mathematical background. All in all, this books continues to be a source of information and inspiration to this day.