Books
           Ecology, the Great Integrator
           Fundamentals of Ecology. 5th ed.                  Golley,a University of Georgia colleague         logical discipline, involving interdisci-
           Eugene P. Odum and Gary W. Barrett.               of Odum and Barrett: “Thinking eco-              plinary approaches at the higher levels of
           Brooks Cole, Belmont, CA, 2004. 624               logically means synthesizing the many            ecological organization, and leading to
           pp., illus. $104.95 (ISBN 0534420664              fields of human knowledge into a co-             transdisciplinary means of solving en-
           cloth).                                           herent world view. Ultimately, the sci-          vironmental problems and managing
                                                             entific ecologist includes in his or her         resources. They see ecology evolving
                                                             purview ethics,values,and politics.As a          “into that much needed integrative sci-             Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/55/7/622/306787 by guest on 20 January 2023
               he fifth edition of Fundamentals of           consequence,there will never be overall          ence of the future.”E.O.Wilson notes in
           TEcologyrecords,sadly,the demise of               consensus on the form and objectives of          the foreword that the book is needed to
           its first author, Eugene P. Odum, who             ecological science” (Keller and Golley           “learn the boundaries and principal 
           served at the University of Georgia’s In-         2000).                                           features of ecology,” which are increas-
           stitute of Ecology for more than six                                                               ingly difficult to delineate.
           decades. Gene Odum’s long and pro-                                                                    The volume is well organized and
           ductive career as an ecologist was replete                                                         clearly written, and addresses the in-
           with honors. It appropriately ends with                                                            creasing scope and complexity of ecol-
           the reappearance of his paradigmatic                                                               ogy. It considers seven ecological
           textbook (Bergandi 2000).                                                                          levels—organism,population,commu-
              The first edition in 1953 was notable                                                           nity, ecosystem, landscape, biome, and
           for being organized around the then new                                                            ecosphere—in terms of seven tran-
           and little-known concept of the ecosystem,                                                         scending functions—energetics, evolu-
           a term coined by A. G. Tansley in 1935.                                                            tion,development,regulation,behavior,
           The ecosystem concept was initially de-                                                            diversity,and integration.The early edi-
           veloped in 1942 by Raymond Lindeman                                                                tions’emphasis on the ecosystem concept
           in an article on “trophic-dynamic aspects                                                          is continued,with 40 percent of the pages
           of ecology”(published with much diffi-                                                             being on ecosystems.An innovation is a
           culty), but was brought forcefully to the            So sweeping a view of ecology makes           chapter on statistical thinking for stu-
           forefront of ecology in Odum’s revolu-            writing a text on its fundamentals a fit-        dents of ecology,by R.Cary Tuckfield of
           tionary textbook by his emphasis on the           ting task for these two distinguished            the Savannah River National Laboratory
           structure and function of ecosystems.             ecologists. Odum and Barrett note the            (which Odum was instrumental in
           The current edition maintains the holis-          common etymological derivations of               founding).This is followed by an exten-
           tic emphasis of the earlier ones and em-          ecology and economics from the Greek             sive glossary, references, and an index.
           phasizes the complex problems of                  word oikos and call attention to the re-            The format of the book is uniform
           hierarchy,emergence,and human com-                cent rapprochement of these tradition-           throughout.Each subdivision of a chap-
           ponents of (and influences on) ecosys-            ally antithetical disciplines in the             ter, after the first chapter describing the
           tems in current ecology.                          interface discipline of ecological eco-
              In the fifth edition,Gary W.Barrett,a          nomics. Indeed, the inside back cover            scope of ecology,is introduced by a state-
           long-time ecologist who is the director of        shows a cycle of “natural capital”(eco-          ment followed by explanations and ex-
           the Ecology Institute and holder of the           logical resources) and “economic capi-           amples. The statement is a concise
           Odum Professorship in Ecology at the              tal”(human production).                          comment on the concept or phenome-
           University of Georgia, joins Odum in                 One problem the authors note is that          non considered. The explanation pro-
           coauthorship. Among numerous dis-                 the enormous contribution of natural             vides three historical references and
           tinctions, Barrett served as president of         capital,supplied free to human societies         elaborates the ideas introduced earlier,
           the American Institute of Biological Sci-         by natural ecosystems, is commonly ig-           and the examples  offer specific cases and
           ences in 1998.                                    nored,in part because of the difficulty of       studies thereof.In all chapters,keywords
              Writing a textbook on the fundamen-            evaluating it in conventional economic           are given in boldface for emphasis. The
           tals of ecology is a daunting task in an era      terms.Money flows out of urban areas to          text is liberally supplied with clear figures
           when ecology has expanded far beyond              pay for energy, goods, and human ser-            and tables from diverse sources. Special
           its traditional scope.Its current breadth,        vices, but natural ecosystem services are        attention is given to models, some de-
           not to say depth,is evident in a quotation        not accounted for.                               veloped by Howard T. Odum, Gene
           from the afterword in a volume on phi-               The authors intend the volume to              Odum’s brother;the work of son William
           losophy of ecology coedited by Frank              serve as an introduction to a new eco-           E.Odum is also cited.
           622 BioScience  •  July 2005 / Vol. 55 No. 7
                                                                                                                                                      Books
                  The authors devote considerable at-            some 60 terms based on “assembly”and
               tention to concerns about biodiversity            47 on “assemblage”in the literature be-
               and the problems of human effects on the          tween 1970 and 1999.Diamond moved                         WILDLIFE WORLDWIDE
               earth and sustainability. They note, in           on to books about human societies,one
               passing, those who would resolve such             of which was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
               problems by establishing enormous space              The concluding chapter by R. Cary               Nature’s Strongholds: The World’s
               colonies (without direct mention of Pres-         Tuckfield,on statistical thinking,is not a         Great Wildlife Reserves. Laura and
               ident Bush’s plan for Mars). Their con-           primer on elementary statistics;rather,it          William Riley. Princeton University
               clusion: don’t count on it.                       considers the intrinsic difficulties of            Press, Princeton, NJ, 2005. 672 pp.,
                  Ecologists linked humans and ecol-             applying conventional statistics in ecol-          illus. $49.50 (ISBN 0691122199 cloth).
               ogy even in the early years of the disci-         ogy because of problems of scale.Oddly,
               pline, but this volume brings human               Tuckfield asserts that “statistical methods                                                         Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/55/7/622/306787 by guest on 20 January 2023
               influences and concerns to the forefront          may not always apply, but statistical                  aura and William Riley wrote Guide
               of the discussion of Earth’s sustainability       thinking will.”He equates Plato’s famous           Lto the National Wildlife Refuges in
               and poses the problems of postmaturity            shadows with samples, and calls for a              1979 and updated it in 1992 and 1993.
               old age. It is of interest,in the context of      different perspective on data analysis in          Laura Riley’s natural history photographs
               modern high-tech agriculture, to note             ecological studies, particularly at larger         and writing have appeared in Natural
               the recent emphasis on traditional prac-          scales.According to this perspective,the           History, National/International Wildlife,
               tices of indigenous peoples and what              emphasis is on data display rather than            American Birds,Smithsonian, and many
               may be learned from them about sus-               statistical computing software,in what he          other magazines. Now the Rileys have
               tainability (Ford and Martinez 2000).             terms the “weight of evidence”paradigm.            provided us with another impressive vol-
                  Odum and Barrett consider the elusive          This is a refreshing departure from the            ume, one of global scope, in Nature’s
               problem of ecological theory,which has            common emphasis on statistical tech-               Strongholds: The World’s Great Wildlife
               long frustrated ecologists.They review the        niques per se as the resolution of eco-            Reserves.
               grand old climax theory of Frederic               logical problems.                                     Descriptions of about 600 sanctuaries
               Clements and the attendant dispute                   This fifth edition of Fundamentals of           in some 80 countries on every continent
               about its merits, and declare that it re-         Ecologycan stand as a memorial to Gene             constitute the bulk of this hefty book.
               mains “one of the most important uni-             Odum’s contributions to ecology and,               The authors’introduction provides his-
               fying theories in ecology.”Indeed, it has         with Gary Barrett’s collaboration,it will          torical background on the reserves, de-
               several descendants in the concepts of            serve as an introduction to the long               scribes the challenges facing them, and
               self-organization, synergetics, and as-           history of traditional ecology and a bal-          supplies information on permits, im-
               cendancy, which in more modern jar-               anced consideration of the recent emer-            munizations,and other nitty-gritty mat-
               gon see ecosystems as developing into             gence of ecology as an integrative science.        ters of travel.
               self-organizing systems, similar to                                                                     Reserves are grouped alphabetically
               Clements’s concept.                                                ROBERT P.MCINTOSH                 by country and nested in nine large chap-
                  Notably, Odum and Barrett do not                                   5400 NW 39th Avenue            ters:  “Africa,” “Antarctica,” “Asia,”
               consider two individuals, Robert May                                                                 “Caribbean and Central America,”
               and Jared Diamond,who flashed across                                      Apartment CC-269           “Europe,” “North America,” “Offshore
               the ecological sky in the 1970s and 1980s                               Gainesville, FL 32606        Islands,” “South America,” and “South
               and then went on to other conquests.              References cited                                   Pacific Islands.”The entry for each coun-
               May,an Australian physicist, wrote sev-                                                              try opens with a country map showing
               eral articles on theoretical ecology and          Bergandi D.2000.“Reductionist holism”:An oxy-      the locations of its preserves and a size
               wrote or edited books on model ecosys-                moron or a philosophical chimera of Eugene     scale.A second map places the country on
               tems and theoretical ecology,then served              Odum’s systems ecology? Pages 204–217 in       its continent.Graphs of average monthly
               in England as science advisor to the prime            Keller DR, Golley FB, eds. The Philosophy of   temperature and rainfall accompany a
               minister and received a knighthood.Di-                Ecology: From Science to Synthesis. Athens:    brief introduction to wild places in each
               amond,a well-known physiologist,won-                  University of Georgia Press.                   country. Descriptions of specific sanc-
               dered why ecologists had overlooked               Ford J, Martinez D. 2000. Traditional ecological   tuaries follow: area encompassed by the
               competition—which, J. B. Jackson                      knowledge, ecosystem science, and environ-     preserve, charismatic and rare species,
               pointed out,they had not.His principal                mental management. Ecological Applications     biome,times to visit, what to see, back-
               contribution to ecological theory was his             10: 1249–1340.                                 ground, facilities, and contact informa-
               use of the terms “assembly,” “assembly            Keller DR,Golley FB,eds.2000.The Philosophy of     tion (telephone, fax, e-mail, and postal
               rule,” and “assemblage,” predicated on                Ecology: From Science to Synthesis. Athens:    address).
               the primacy of interspecific competition.             University of Georgia Press.                      In Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire, dazzling 
               These gave rise to extended debate and to         Lindeman RL.1942.The trophic-dynamic aspects       Diana monkeys swing through the forest
               the proliferation of an extensive set of              of ecology. Ecology 23: 399–418.               canopy of Tai National Park.In Malawi,
                                                                                                                    July 2005 / Vol. 55 No. 7 •  BioScience 623