xii 418 pages, indexed. First paperback edition with corrections. The edges are lightly bumbed and there is an owenrship inscription on the front end paper, else a clean, unmarked and solid copy. "It is over twenty years since Jared Diamond focused attention on the possible existence of assembly rules for ecological communities. This volume provides a current status examination of the existence and nature of assembly rules, using both theoretical and empirical approaches in a variety of systems."