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DIECKMANN, U., LAW, R., and METZ, J. A. J. (editors). The Geometry of Ecological Interactions: Simplifying Spatial Complexity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000. xiv + 564 pp. L47.50/$74.95. ISBN 0-52164294-9.
This volume offers an extensive survey of spatiotemporal modelling in ecology and contains contributions from many of the key researchers in the field. Its overall message can be summarised as follows. Ecological processes are inherently spatial. Models in which spatial effects are represented explicitly are well known to exhibit dynamics not predicted by non-spatial formulations, and the power of modern computing has led to a proliferation of individual-based, spatially explicit, computer models. The generic properties of these models are not easily understood by simulation alone. Nevertheless, by studying simpler, mathematically tractable approximations to them, general insights into the dynamics can sometimes be obtained. This is communicated in the four principal sections (A-D) of the book. Part A presents the empirical and statistical background from the perspective of plant ecology and includes a useful introduction to plant interactions and the concept of neighbourhood, descriptions of field studies of spatial patterning, and a review of the statistical analysis of spatial pattern (Cox, Isham and Northrop). Part B presents several approaches to constructing spatially explicit models, in situations where a mean-field approach fails. It covers grid-based...