Cover -- Preface -- chapter 1 - Overview -- Scope of insect ecology -- Ecosystem ecology -- Ecosystem complexity -- The hierarchy of subsystems -- Regulation -- Environmental change and disturbance -- Ecosystem approach to insect ecology -- Scope of this book -- Section - I -- chapter 2 - Responses to Abiotic Conditions -- The physical template -- Biomes -- Environmental variation -- Disturbances -- Surviving variable abiotic conditions -- Thermoregulation -- Water balance -- Air and water chemistry -- Other abiotic factors -- Factors affecting dispersal behavior -- Life history strategy -- Crowding -- Nutritional status -- Habitat and resource conditions -- Mechanism of dispersal -- Responses to anthropogenic changes -- Summary -- chapter 3 - Resource Acquisition -- Resource quality -- Resource requirements -- Variation in food quality -- Plant chemical defenses -- Nonnitrogenous defenses -- Nitrogenous defenses -- Elemental defenses -- Arthropod defenses -- Antipredator defenses -- Antimicrobial defenses -- Factors affecting expression of defenses -- Mechanisms for exploiting variable resources -- Resource acceptability -- Resource availability -- Foraging strategies -- Orientation -- Information processing -- Responses to cues -- Attraction of conspecific insects -- Learning -- Summary -- chapter 4 - Resource Allocation -- Resource budget -- Allocation of assimilated resources -- Resource acquisition -- Mating activity -- Attraction -- Courtship behavior -- Reproductive and social behavior -- Oviposition behavior -- Nesting and brood care -- Competitive, defensive, and mutualistic behavior -- Competitive behavior -- Defensive behavior -- Mutualistic behavior -- Efficiency of resource use -- Factors affecting efficiency -- Food quality -- Size and physiological condition -- Learning -- Tradeoffs -- Summary -- chapter 5 - Population Systems.

Population structure -- Density -- Dispersion -- Metapopulation structure -- Age structure -- Sex ratio -- Genetic composition -- Social insects -- Population processes -- Natality -- Mortality -- Dispersal -- Life history characteristics -- Parameter estimation -- Summary -- Section- II -- chapter 6 - Population dynamics -- Population fluctuation -- Factors affecting population size -- Density-independent factors -- Density-dependent factors -- Regulatory mechanisms -- Models of population change -- Exponential and geometric models -- Logistic model -- Complex models -- Computerized models -- Model evaluation -- Summary -- chapter 7 - Biogeography -- Geographic distribution -- Global patterns -- Regional patterns -- Island biogeography -- Landscape and stream continuum patterns -- Spatial dynamics of populations -- Expanding populations -- Metapopulation dynamics -- Anthropogenic effects on spatial dynamics -- Fragmentation -- Disturbances to aquatic ecosystems -- Species introductions -- Conservation biology -- Models of spatial dynamics -- Summary -- Section - III -- chapter 8 - Species Interactions -- Classes of interactions -- Competition -- Predation -- Symbiosis -- Parasitism -- Commensalism -- Mutualism -- Factors affecting interactions -- Abiotic conditions -- Resource availability and distribution -- Indirect effects of other species -- Consequences of interactions -- Population regulation -- Community regulation -- Summary -- chapter 9 - Community Structure -- Approaches to describing communities -- Species diversity -- Species interactions -- Food chain length -- Trophic loops and intraguild predation -- Food web connectance -- Food web compartmentalization -- Omnivory -- Ratio of basal to top species -- Functional organization -- Patterns of community structure -- Global patterns -- Biome and landscape patterns.

Determinants of community structure -- Habitat area and complexity -- Habitat stability -- Resource availability -- Species interactions -- Summary -- chapter 10 - Community Dynamics -- Short-term change in community structure -- Successional change in community structure -- Patterns of succession -- Factors affecting succession -- Models of succession -- Paleoecology -- Diversity versus stability -- Components of stability -- Stability of community variables -- Summary -- Section - IV -- chapter 11 - Ecosystem Structure and Function -- Ecosystem structure -- Trophic Structure -- Spatial Variability -- Energy flow -- Primary Productivity -- Secondary Productivity -- Energy Budgets -- Biogeochemical cycling -- Abiotic and Biotic Pools -- Major Cycles -- Hydric Cycle -- Carbon Cycle -- Nitrogen Cycle -- Sedimentary Cycles -- Factors Influencing Cycling Processes -- Climate modification -- Ecosystem modeling -- Summary -- chapter 12 - Herbivory -- Types and patterns of herbivory -- Herbivore functional groups -- Measurement of herbivory -- Spatial and temporal patterns of herbivory -- Effects of herbivory -- Plant productivity, survival, and growth form -- Community dynamics -- Water and nutrient fluxes -- Effects on climate and disturbance regime -- Summary -- chapter 13 - Pollination, Seed Predation, and Seed Dispersal -- Types and patterns of pollination -- Pollinator functional groups -- Measurement of pollination -- Spatial and temporal patterns of pollination -- Effects of pollination -- Types and patterns of seed predation and dispersal -- Seed predator and disperser functional groups -- Measurement of seed predation and dispersal -- Spatial and temporal patterns of seed predation and dispersal -- Effects of seed predation and dispersal -- Summary -- chapter 14 - Decomposition and Pedogenesis -- Types and patterns of detritivory and burrowing.

Detritivore and burrower functional groups -- Measurement of detritivory, burrowing, and decomposition rates -- Spatial and temporal patterns in processing of detritus and soil -- Effects of detritivory and burrowing -- Decomposition and mineralization -- Comminution -- Microbial respiration -- Mineralization -- Soil structure, fertility, and infiltration -- Primary production and vegetation dynamics -- Summary -- chapter 15 - Insects as Regulators of Ecosystem Processes -- Development of the concept -- Ecosystems as cybernetic systems -- Properties of cybernetic systems -- Ecosystem homeostasis -- Definition of stability -- Regulation of net primary productivity by biodiversity -- Regulation of net primary productivity by insects -- Summary -- Section - V -- chapter 16 - Synthesis -- Summary -- Synthesis -- Applications -- Management of crop, forest, and urban "pests" -- Conservation/restoration ecology -- Indicators of environmental conditions -- Ecosystem engineering -- Critical issues -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Author Index -- Taxonomic Index -- Subject Index -- Extended Permissions List.