The author presents the argument that it is the trade-off between the irregular, chaotic dynamics at the level of populations and the spatio-temporal organization at the level of the system as a whole that shapes ecological systems. This book combines the topics of theoretical analysis, natural science, philosophy and fundamental ecology in a synthetic treatment. Outlines a coherent framework to delineate the internal structure of ecological networks along the dimensions of time, space and function in the network context. Introduces mathematical tools to describe and quantify the functional importance of spatial and temporal patterns in ecological networks for ecosystem organization.