Resolving Ecosystem Complexity -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Tables -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- Philosophical Musings -- Explaining Contingency: A Worldview -- Contingency and Emergence -- Preparing the Mind for Discovery -- Structure of the Book -- 2. Conceptualizing Ecosystem Structure -- Abstracting Complexity -- Whole System vs. Building Blocks Approach -- Defining Species Interaction Modules -- Identifying Interaction Modules in a Grassland Ecosystem -- Conception of Ecosystem Structure -- 3. Trophic Dynamics: Why Is the World Green? -- Trophic Control as an Emergent Property of Resource Limitation -- Explaining Contingency in Trophic Control of Ecosystem Function -- The Nature of Resource Limitation and Trophic Control of Food Chains -- The Mechanism Switching Hypothesis of Trophic Control -- Effects of Herbivore Feeding Mode -- Collective Effects of Herbivore Species with Different Feeding Modes -- Plant-Antiherbivore Defense and Strength of Trophic Control -- Herbivore Resource Selection and Ecosystem Function -- Stoichiometry and Herbivore Resource Use -- Resource Selection and Ecosystem Function -- Herbivore Indirect Effects and Engineering of Green Worlds -- Herbivore-Mediated Carnivore Indirect Effects on Ecosystems -- Carnivore Indirect Effects on Plant Diversity -- Carnivore Indirect Effects on Ecosystem Function -- 4. The Green World and the Brown Chain -- Conceptualizing Functions along Detritus-Based Chains -- Resource Limitation and Trophic Control -- Trophic Control of Decomposition -- Trophic Control of Mineralization -- Mechanisms of Top-Down Control -- Trophic Coupling between Detritus-Based and Plant-Based Chains -- 5. The Evolutionary Ecology of Trophic Control in Ecosystems -- Carnivore Species and the Nature of Trophic Interactions in an Old-Field System.

Carnivore Hunting Mode and the Nature of Trophic Interactions -- The Evolutionary Ecology of Trophic Cascades -- 6. The Whole and the Parts -- Developing Predictive Theory for Emergence -- Contingency and Carnivore Diversity Effects on Ecosystems -- Carnivore Diversity and Emergent Effects on Ecosystem Function -- Shifting Down One Trophic Level: Intermediate Species Diversity and Ecosystem Function -- Herbivore Diversity and Mediation of Top-Down Control of Ecosystem Function -- Detritivore Diversity and Mediation of Top-Down Control of Ecosystem Function -- The Basal Trophic Level: Plant Diversity and Ecosystem Function -- Functional Classifications -- Resource Identity Effects on Trophic Interactions -- Moving Forward on Functional Diversity and Ecosystem Function -- 7. The Ecological Theater and the Evolutionary Ecological Play -- Phenotypic Variation and State-Dependent Trade-Offs -- Attacked Plants Attract Predators -- Predators That Avoid Predation -- The Nonconsumptive Basis of Trophic Transfer Efficiencies -- Trophic Interactions in a Changing Theater -- Rapid Change in Hunting Strategy -- Landscapes of Fear and Ecosystem Management -- Closing Remarks -- References -- Index.