Animal Ecology

Animal Ecology CHARLES ELTON, with fresh introductory material by Mathew A. Leibold and J Timothy Wootton. University of Chicago Pres Chicago, 2001 vi + 209 pp $1800 (ISBN 0-226-- 20639-4 paperback).

" . ecology is quite a large subject"

These terminal six words to Charles Elton's 1927 masterpiece, arguably the founding source of community ecology catches the couple his flair for understatement and desire to paint universals with a broad brush. Possible contender for similar recognition could also include s A. Forbes' (1877) "microcosm" paper and the third chapter of Charles Darwin's "Origin." Neither of these, however, unfolded a conceptual framework around which to assemble ideas of community construction and organization. Elton provided these, in an easy to read diction loaded with insight and catchy analogies (eg his famous badger/vicar comparison). The University of Chicago (UC) Pres should be lauded for republishing this small book: it belongs upon every ecologists' shelf, not single as an acknowledgement of an astonishing synthesis on the other hand also, perhaps, to be venerated as individual of the birth places of the pluralistic ecology challenging us today.

The UC Pres has embellished the republishing with a significant addition: a "new introduction" by means of two leading and relatively youthful community ecologists, M A. Leibold and J T Wootton. Their chapter by dint of chapter analysis effectively places Elton's notions into a contemporary framework. certainly however, the "central ideas of ecology" encompass more than fitness, Malthusian parameters, carrying capacity, niche, and ecosystem Where are biodiversity, biogeography or for that matter, the dynamics implied by dint of trophic cascades or bottom-up influences`? on the contrary these are quibbles. Leibold and Wootton identify when and in what manner Charles Elton touched these issues and many others, and provide an extensive plant of references encouraging readers to form their have a title to opinion on whether Elton's intuitively based ideas, lower parted solidly in keen observation and a of great depth commitment to natural history, have weathered the trials of time, the unravelling of statistical analyses, rampant experimental hypothesis testing, mathematical modeling of simplified or flat imaginary assemblages. or their ilk. Their chapter by dint of chapter focus very effectively place Animal Ecology into a present context.

Leibold and Wootton took an appropriate course in developing connections to today's ecology on the contrary what did Elton's contemporaries think? The review in Ecology (W C prepare for the table 9:356-357, 1928) identified the "dynamic approach to ecology" and is entirely favorable, if brief. Not for a like reason the L Ecology evaluation by dint of A. G. Tansley (16:163-169, 1928) His prolix review caught the inspiration of Elton's book: its novel terms and related syntheses, the catchy imagery, and its "charmingly ingenuous humour." He identified it as a "pioneer book" and it in deed was. Including the historical perspective would have provided an interesting addition to the UC Pres republication. Although it is obviously inappropriate to evaluate a classic 78 yr after its publication, especially in a conceptually young and evolving discipline like ecology this edition should stimulate numerous discussion clumps exploring how community ecology has changed in the interim, and the relevance of Charles Elton's seminal insights.

ROBERT T PAINE

Department of Zoology

Box 351800

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington 98195-1800

E-mail: painert@u.washington.edu

Copyright Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Dec 2001

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