Book Description

This pioneering volume explores time series analysis and interpretation using a wide range of methods and examples from terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecology. The book challenges readers to discern interdisciplinary processes that can unify fields as diverse as climatology and epidemiology. The first section of the book explores the basic concepts of environmental analysis, reviews state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies, and offers innovative solutions to analytical problems of longer time series with special attention to climate change, providing the reader with the conceptual and methodological tools to analyze environmental data accurately. The second section examines a variety of time scales used to describe change, and the variability within and between different ecosystems, so that diverse systems may be studied in an integrated way. The final section of the book illustrates key concepts and themes, based on the results of major investigations in various time scales, including studies from arctic sites to human epidemiology. Investigating time series in the context of ecological functions such as population processes, community structure, and patch dynamics, this insightful volume will stimulate cross fertilization among the ecological disciplines. The broad spectrum of ideas and applications examined in this volume makes it a useful resource for all ecologists.