Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This book is long overdue! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in issues of allometry (how characteristics of organisms change with their size), scaling, and how attributes of organisms influence larger scale patterns in ecology and evolution. Scaling is probably the most important problem facing biology and this book is a fabulous launching point to a series of new approaches. The book presents several chapters by several of the leaders in the field - and range from vascular morphology of mammals, physiology, plant physiology and ecology, biomechanics, life-history, ecology and evolutionary biology, and even conservation biology. The long introductory chapter provides a nice introduction, history, and overview of the growing field. Probably the best attribute of the book is the underlying synthesis of biology. Those interested in building linkages between organismal biology, physiology, community ecology, ecology, large scale ecology, or evolutionary biology need to read this book.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Scaling in Biology (Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Science of Complexity)
Scaling relationships have been a persistent theme in biology at least since the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo. Because scaling relationships are among the most general empirical patterns in biology, they have stimulated research to develop mechanistic hypotheses and mathematical models. While there have been many excellent empirical and theoretical investigations, there has been little attempt to synthesize this diverse but interrelated area of biology. In an effort to fill this void, Scaling in Biology, the first general treatment of scaling in biology in over 15 years, covers a broad spectrum of the most relevant topics in a series of chapters written by experts in the field. Some of those topics discussed include allometry and fractal structure, branching of vascular systems of mammals and plants, biomechanical and life history of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, and species-area patterns of biological diversity. Many more examples are included within this text to complete the broader picture. Scaling in Biology conveys the diversity, promise, and excitement of current research in this area, in a format accessible to a wide audience of not only specialists in the various sub-disciplines, but also students and anyone with a serious interest in biology.
