individual fields, but for many organisms such as
insects still on scales that are possible to manage by
individual decision-makers such as farmers, i.e. on
whole farms or multiple field-matrix mosaics. This
may be different from many birds and game animals,
and from forestry, which may require management
of larger landscapes to include the relevant distur-
bance regimes (see Bengtssonet al. 2003).
Third, these examples illustrate that metacommu-
nity theories can be useful because they address the
interplay between local and regional dynamics at
scales that are relevant to managers. These theories
can thus be used to guide management strategies for
conservation and ecosystem services in human-
dominated landscapes. At the same time, applied
studies can provide tests of metacommunity theory
on the roles of landscape and local factors for diver-
sity and ecosystem functioning, and of theory on
trophic interactions in spatially heterogeneous eco-
systems. Variation in management may provide the
treatments needed to more rigorously examine these
questions, despite the fact that full control over the
treatments is not achieved. However, this is balanced
by an increased realism and applicability of the re-
sults in management and policy, and the possibility
of applying theoretical frameworks on larger scales
rather than extrapolating from small-scale model
systems whose relevance for management often is
questioned.Acknowledgements
I thank Tomas Pa ̈rt, Jens A ̊stro ̈m, Erik O ̈ckinger
and Henrik Andre ́n for comments on various
parts of the manuscript, my previous and present
PhD students and collaborators for their intellectual
input, and the organizers of the Community Ecolo-
gy course in 2005 in The Netherlands, where the
two lectures on which this chapter is based were
held. I have been funded by the Swedish Research
Council and FORMAS for the research reported
here.130 APPLICATIONS