A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems.

Monographs in Population Biology #23

by R.V. O'Neill

"Ecosystem" is an intuitively appealing concept to most ecologists, but, in spite of its widespread use, the term remains diffuse and ambiguous. The authors of this book argue that previous attempts to define the concept have been derived from particular viewpoints to the exclusion of others equally possible. They offer instead a more general line of thought based on hierarchy theory. Their contribution should help to counteract the present separation of subdisciplines in ecology and to bring functional and population/community ecologists closer to a common approach.
Developed as a way of understanding highly complex organized systems, hierarchy theory has at its center the idea that organization results from differences in process rates. To the authors the theory suggests an objective way of decomposing ecosystems into their component parts. The results thus obtained offer a rewarding method for integrating various schools of ecology.

253 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

Reviews

[Francesc Mesquita-Joanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much clearer writing and structure than Allen and Starr's Hierarchy theory book. Old (>30 years) yet insightful discussion on the everlasting issue of the duality of the ecosystem (structure vs. function, populations vs. energy flow...), with some brief notes on how to tackle the integration of both views and importantly, but less discussed here, on how important is it to consider different spatial and temporal scales in ecological research, a still unresolved problem.