The main task of the present work is to substantiate the idea of ​ ​ the leading importance of ecological mechanisms in the evolutionary process, which we consider, along with natural selection, as the main driving force of evolution. This task is subordinated to both the structure of the book as a whole and the structure of individual chapters. In particular, literary data are used by us only insofar as they are necessary for an objective analysis of the main problems of evolutionary ecology.