A Refreshing Take on Ecology: 'Ecology' by N.F. Reimers

I'm super stoked to share my thoughts on the classic book 'Ecology' by N.F. Reimers.

This book really blew me away - it's not just a textbook, you know? I loved the chapter on predation. It's one of those things that seems obvious at first, but when you think about it, it's actually pretty fascinating. I mean, remember that meme that was going around a decade ago? 'There are holes in the cheese - the more cheese, the more holes - the more holes, the less cheese - the more cheese, the less cheese.' Yeah, it's like that. But in real life, it's actually a delicate balance between predators and prey. The more prey, the more predators - and vice versa. It's all about regulation, you know? And that's exactly what this book gets across. Plus, it cites some really interesting research on the subject. I mean, they tried to replicate the balance in a lab setting, but it just didn't work out - the predators would wipe out all the prey, and then they'd starve to death. It's pretty wild, actually.

The book does a decent job of explaining Tishler's biocenotic postulates, but it's a bit too general and lacks specific examples. However, when it comes to predation, the three postulates really come into play. They're all about finding a balance between opposing forces.

The book does a decent job of explaining Tishler's biocenotic postulates, but it's a bit too general and lacks specific examples. However, when it comes to predation, the three postulates really come into play. They're all about finding a balance between opposing forces.

I was a bit disappointed with the section on alpha diversity - I was expecting more, to be honest. I mean, it's pretty basic stuff - it's just the variety of species within a particular habitat or community. But what about the nuances? What about the hidden complexities? The book doesn't really go into that, unfortunately.

I have to say, the biodiversity indices in the book make sense to me. There's a mind-boggling number of them, but the book focuses on Shannon (species proportion in a community), Margalef (number of species per area or volume), and species richness - the number of species per individuals. The topic of species-edificators (ecosystem engineers) really stood out to me. The more coexisting species on a territory, the more resilient the ecosystem is, as the loss of one species would be compensated by the growth of another. However, the author is spot on in pointing out that EVERY SPECIES MATTERS, and its population dynamics will have a ripple effect on the entire ecosystem. This reminded me of a chapter I'm not sure which one, but it talked about the adaptability of organisms to living alongside each other, when they seemingly occupy the same ecological niche.

I also picked up on the rule of topographic (populational) mosaic, which I'd never heard of before. It states that individuals are distributed unevenly across the habitat, avoiding areas that are unsuitable for life. Yeah, it makes sense intuitively, but I'd never seen it formalized before.

The book touches on community stability in bits and pieces, but it's clear that the common thread is the dependence on biological diversity of the chosen system.

On page 97, the author mentions that the rule of Allen is a special case of the rule of Bergman. There's something to that, but I'm not entirely convinced. I'd say they're related, but I wouldn't go as far as to say one is a subset of the other. Nearby is the rule of Wallace, which is a bit fuzzy and lacks examples, but it's still easy to understand. For instance, on a 10x10m plot of Russian forest, you'd typically find around 4 tree species, whereas in the tropics, you might have 40, and we don't even have that many in an entire forest.

I was glad to see the mention of Linderman's law of energy pyramids on page 103, which states that 10% of energy is transferred to each trophic level.

Final Verdict

I'm really impressed with this textbook - it's a total win in my book. I know I mentioned a few things, but overall, I'm happy with it, as you can see from the 5-star rating. It's readable, packed with info, and well-structured, with loads of diagrams and illustrations.