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When assuming the task of preparing a book such as this, one inevitably wonders why anyone would want to read it. I have always sympathized with Charles Elton's trenchant observation in his 1927 book that 'we have to face the fact that while ecological work is fascinating to do, it is unbearably dull to read about .

In cataloging a dozen vertical patterns I hope to convince the reader that species interactions across trophic levels are as patterned as those along trophic levels and demand explanations equally forcefully.