Publisher's Synopsis
What are the regulatory factors that, over the long run, prevent a population from realizing its potential for unbounded increase? How do these regulatory factors combine to produce observed patterns in the relative abundance of species? How do these dynamical factors influence the structure of plant and animal communities? And, ultimately, how does all this add up to determine the number of species, either locally or globally? The papers in this volume survey recent advances in studies of these questions, emphasizing the integration of empirical studies with ecological theory. Overall, the book has the deliberate aim of shaping an agenda for research, towards a clearer understanding of how many species there are, and why.
