Macroecology

by Brown, James H

Science is interesting to Brown if "it changes my view of the natural world and challenges rather than confirms existing dogma." He does both in advocating a nonexperimental approach, based upon emergent statistical properties of individuals/species, to studying ecological and evolutionary processes that determine species diversity, abundance, and distribution. By linking population dynamics and species interactions (small-scale processes) with speciation, extinction, and range expansion/contraction (large-scale processes), Brown argues that "macroecology" has greater potential for generality than its reductionist, experimental counterpart. After developing macroecology's conceptual rationale, the book reflects a logical progression of data (primarily on mammals and birds, e.g., associations between local abundance and geographic distribution; patterns in body size, density, and energetics), mechanisms, hypothesis formulation, and a synthesis exploring the implications of macroecology