The role of competition within communities, in shaping the structure and composition of the community matrix itself and in influencing day to day functioning of the system is particularly controversial. This book offers a synthesis of these arguments and provides an overview of existing knowledge about competition and organizing that knowledge in such a way that new research paths are suggested. The author presents an original and at times controversial view of competition and its role in ecological communities, not only summarizing what is known but stressing the unknowns, describing unresolved problems and suggesting avenues for further research.