Introduction: Patchy environment - an overview 1. Starvation and predation in a patchy environment 2. The response of plants to patchy environments 3. Dynamic stability of a single-species population in a divided and ephemeral environment 4. Variance and patchiness in rates of population change - a planthopper's case history 5. Coexistence in a patchy environment 6. Population dynamics and community structure of parasitic helminths 7. Dung and carrion insects 8. Patchiness and community structure 9. Extinction of finite metapopulations in correlated environments 10. Conservation in a variable environment - the optimal size of reserves 11. Does interdemic group selection occur in commensal house mice (Mus domesticus)? 12. Sex determination and sex ratios in patchy environments