Book Reviews

Abstract

W.S.C. Gurney & R.M.Nisbet (1998) Ecological Dynamics. Pp. 335. Oxford University Press, New York. £29.95 (cloth), ISBN: 0-19-510443-9 This is a book in three parts: all excellent. The heart of the book is in the middle: four chapters take the reader from models of individuals to models of whole ecosystems via single species populations and interacting populations. This section presents a coherent body of theory for ecological dynamics. It is preceded by three chapters introducing the basic mathematical concepts required to formulate, analyse and understand dynamic models. The last section of the book covers two more difficult topics: physiological and spatial structure. Discrete and continuous approaches are discussed throughout, although by and large the book deals with those situations in which stochasticity is one of the details that can be ignored. The emphasis is on modelling real systems with the aim of understanding how they work. Silly claims about the generality of results from models of nothing in particular are absent. Instead, you get a rigorous and clear approach which stresses the generality of the modelling methods and of many of the dynamic principles presented. I think that this is a very good book at several levels (an irritating admission to have to make, as it deprives me of the chance to be revenged for all those hours spent struggling with the authors’ previous volume). For a start, it presents ecological dynamics as a subject with a coherent body of basic theory, rather than the random selection of rather arbitrary models that it sometimes appears. After reading the book I really felt that I had a better understanding of the subject than I had before. The second outstanding feature is the set of case studies. All but the first three chapters contain several case studies that use the ideas and models presented in the chapter. I found all of these excellent: real biological problems are addressed and answers obtained using simple and carefully constructed models. The breadth of coverage of the case studies is equally impressive, from the growth of a sea urchin to the dynamics of a fjord (the latter being perhaps the best of a good bunch). Furthermore, the reader can try out all the models presented (and more) using software freely available from the book's web site. The text was extensively field tested on undergraduate and postgraduate classes in biology and maths departments in the US, Canada and the UK. It shows. Most of the material is extremely clear and admirably concise: the footnotes used early on to ‘remind’ students of various mathematical facts provide examples of the care taken. Similarly, the high production standards have lead to a text almost free of mathematical typesetting errors: an important feature of a book some of whose audience will lack mathematical self-confidence. At the same time, clarity has not been achieved by omission of challenging material: a fair proportion of the subject matter is of contemporary research interest. The well thought out structure of the whole book is mirrored at the chapter-by-chapter level: key concepts are distinguished from details and chapters build up material in a well thought out manner. As important is the lively and interesting style (only in the first couple of sections of chapter 7 does the approach get somewhat tedious – but my will to live was rapidly restored by the superb case study that follows). Who will find this book useful? It looks like a superb book on which to build a course on ecological dynamic modelling (I wish I’d had it 3 years ago), but it would also be my recommendation for people wanting to teach themselves: not only is the book clear and well thought out, but the freely available modelling software enables the reader to start producing models from chapter 1. Researchers wanting an overview of established theory, jargon de-mystified and an introduction to structure, will also find it invaluable. In short: this is one to buy.