"This book describes a general and flexible framework for modeling and inference in ecological systems based on hierarchical modeling in which a strict focus on probability models and parametric inference is adopted. The principles of hierarchical modeling are developed and applied to problems in population, metapopulation, community and metacommunity systems. Many novel developments in the areas of distribution modeling, capture-recapture and community models are presented, some appearing for the first time in this book. The book provides the first synthetic treatment of many recent methodological advances in these areas, and also provides unification and synthesis of disparate and diffuse methods and procedures."--Jacket.