As one of the most quantitative of ecological subdisciplines, resource competition is an important, central area of ecology. Recently research into this area has increased dramatically and resource competition models have become more complex. The characterisation of this phenomenon is therefore the aim of this book. Resource Competition seeks to identify the unifying principles emerging from experimental and theoretical approaches as well as the differences between organisms, illustrating that greater knowledge of resource competition will benefit human and environmental welfare. This book will serve as an indispensable guide to ecologists, evolutionary biologists and environmental managers, and all those interested in resource competition as an emerging discipline.

One of the central questions of ecology is why there are so many different kinds of plants and animals. Here David Tilman presents a theory of how organisms compete for resources and the way their competition promotes diversity. Developing Hutchinson's suggestion that the main cause of diversity is the feeding relations of species, this book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities. In a detailed analysis of the Park Grass Experiments at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in England, the author demonstrates that the dramatic results of these 120 years of experimentation are consistent with his theory, as are observations in many other natural communities. The consumer-resource approach of this book is applicable to both animal and plant communities, but the majority of Professor Tilman's discussion concentrates on the structure of plant communities. All theoretical arguments are developed graphically, and formal mathematics is kept to a minimum. The final chapters of the book provide some testable speculations about resources and animal communities and explore such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.

As one of the most quantitative of ecological subdisciplines, resource competition is an important, central area of ecology. Recently research into this area has increased dramatically and resource competition models have become more complex. The characterisation of this phenomenon is therefore the aim of this book. Resource Competition seeks to identify the unifying principles emerging from experimental and theoretical approaches as well as the differences between organisms, illustrating that greater knowledge of resource competition will benefit human and environmental welfare. This book will serve as an indispensable guide to ecologists, evolutionary biologists and environmental managers, and all those interested in resource competition as an emerging discipline.

This book reflects on the causes of resource-based conflicts and competition, and presents solutions for safely and sustainably providing resources with a focus on material flow management. The contributions from different disciplines highlight issues such as safe access to resources, conflicts over water and energy supplies, waste of strategic mineral resources, sustainable resource consumption, and renewable energy technologies.

Rory Putman addresses the question of how, in many temporate ecosystems, diverse and species-rich assemblies of ungulates manage to co-exist despite often quite extensive overlap in ecological requirements. Putman explores the potential for competition, competition tolerance and even positive facilitation amongst the members of such guilds of ungulates. As a central worked example, the author employs data resulting from over 20 years of personal research into the ecology and population dynamics of various large herbivores of the New Forest in Southern England. With these, he applies formal protocols in resource use, evidence for resource limitation and evidence for interaction between species in changing population size over the years.

Hunt convincingly demonstrates that competition is not about dividing up limited resources but about creating more resources and thus competition is pro-society. This truly interdisciplinary book successfully develops a general theory of competition which is rich in explanatory breadth and depth. Consequently, executives and entrepreneuers, management consultants, public makers, and scholars and students in economics, law, political science, and business should read and study this book. —Robert F. Lusch, University of Oklahoma This book develops a new theory of competition. This theory – labeled "resource-advantage theory" – stems from no single research tradition, but draws on several different traditions in economics, management, marketing, and sociology. In this ground-breaking volume, Shelby Hunt articulates R-A theory, uses the theory to explain and predict economic phenomena, and shows how (and why) it explains and predicts such phenomena.

Dramatic changes are taking place in the world of international business as we move forward in the twenty first century. Increasing levels of international trade and foreign direct investment, the growth of huge multinational corporations, and the emergence of new centres of economic prosperity are all evident. Businesses are faced with the challenge of having to survive and succeed in this competitive environment. This book looks specifically at the question of how firms attain a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in a global environment characterised by above average levels of geographic scope, marketing convergence and cross-national interdependencies. This work will be of essential interest to academics and researchers in the fields of international strategy and international business.

The question "Why are there so many species?" has puzzled ecologist for a long time. Initially, an academic question, it has gained practical interest by the recent awareness of global biodiversity loss. Species diversity in local ecosystems has always been discussed in relation to the problem of competi tive exclusion and the apparent contradiction between the competitive exclu sion principle and the overwhelming richness of species found in nature. Competition as a mechanism structuring ecological communities has never been uncontroversial. Not only its importance but even its existence have been debated. On the one extreme, some ecologists have taken competi tion for granted and have used it as an explanation by default if the distribu tion of a species was more restricted than could be explained by physiology and dispersal history. For decades, competition has been a core mechanism behind popular concepts like ecological niche, succession, limiting similarity, and character displacement, among others. For some, competition has almost become synonymous with the Darwinian "struggle for existence", although simple plausibility should tell us that organisms have to struggle against much more than competitors, e.g. predators, parasites, pathogens, and envi ronmental harshness.

Competitiveness describes a key ability important for plants to grow and survive abiotic and biotic stresses. Under optimal, but particularly under non-optimal conditions, plants compete for resources including nutrients, light, water, space, pollinators and other. Competition occurs above- and belowground. In resource-poor habitats, competition is generally considered to be more pronounced than in resource-rich habitats. Although competition occurs between different players within an ecosystem such as between plants and soil microorganisms, our topic focusses on plant-plant interactions and includes inter-specific competition between different species of similar and different life forms and intra-specific competition. Strategies for securing resources via spatial or temporal separation and different resource needs generally reduce competition. Increasingly important is the effect of invasive plants and subsequent decline in biodiversity and ecosystem function. Current knowledge and future climate predictions suggest that in some situations competition will be intensified with occurrence of increased abiotic (e.g. water and nutrient limitations) and biotic stresses (e.g. mass outbreak of insects), but competition might also decrease in situations where plant productivity and survival declines (e.g. habitats with degraded soils). Changing interactions, climate change and biological invasions place new challenges on ecosystems. Understanding processes and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between plants and environmental factors will aid predictions and intervention. There is much need to develop strategies to secure ecosystem services via primary productivity and to prevent the continued loss of biodiversity. This Research Topic provides an up-to-date account of knowledge on plant-plant interactions with a focus on identifying the mechanisms underpinning competitive ability. The Research Topic aims to showcase knowledge that links ecological relevance with physiological processes to better understanding plant and ecosystem function.