A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems. (MPB-23), Volume 23 (Monographs in Population Biology, 23)

"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. Cover Page Half-title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Part I. The Concept of an Ecosystem 1. Fundamental Ambiguities in the Ecosystem Concept 2. A Historical Perspective on How Ecologists Have Viewed Ecosystems Part II. Preliminary Considerations 3. The Ecosystem as a System 4. The Concept of Hierarchy and Its Typical Application Part III. A Proposal for a Theory 5. Some Elements of Hierarchy Theory 6. Hierarchical Structure as the Consequence of Evolution in Open, Dissipative Systems Part IV. Applications of the Theory to Ecological Systems 7. Ecosystems as Hierarchies of Species 8. Ecosystems as Hierarchies of Processes 9. Ecosystems as Dual Hierarchies Literature Cited Author Index Subject Index