- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (9 April 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691021287
- ISBN-13: 978-0691021287
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 13.9 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 209,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
Highly innovative and insightful. . . . Ideas are conveyed clearly and the addition of summary points at the end of each chapter facilitates assimilation. -- Richard T. Busing, Ecological Engineering
Hubbell's book is a very exciting one, deeply original, based on extensive field data, and convincing in its 'simple' explanations of many broad-scale patterns in biodiversity and biogeography. It will probably cause controversies, but primarily stimulate further research. -- Gottfried Jetschke, Ecology
[This] is a rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic and Applied Ecology
A rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. . . . Once you start reading it, you will find it not a page too long. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic Applied Ecology
This is an important contribution to the development of a much sought-after explanation of pattern and process in an increasingly threatened global resource. -- Michael E. Meadows, Environmental Conservation
Hubbell has produced a book for all those who think about how communities are put together, even the not so mathematically minded. . . . [It] is sure to influence how community ecology is done for years to come. -- Sandra Knapp, Biological Conservation
Hubbell's book is a very exciting one, deeply original, based on extensive field data, and convincing in its 'simple' explanations of many broad-scale patterns in biodiversity and biogeography. It will probably cause controversies, but primarily stimulate further research. -- Gottfried Jetschke, Ecology
[This] is a rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic and Applied Ecology
A rich book about an idea that has the power to re-produce generic patterns and that will be in the back of your mind when you, again, try to make sense of the plethora of articles on species diversity, abundance and distribution. . . . Once you start reading it, you will find it not a page too long. -- Carsten F. Dormann, Basic Applied Ecology
This is an important contribution to the development of a much sought-after explanation of pattern and process in an increasingly threatened global resource. -- Michael E. Meadows, Environmental Conservation
Hubbell has produced a book for all those who think about how communities are put together, even the not so mathematically minded. . . . [It] is sure to influence how community ecology is done for years to come. -- Sandra Knapp, Biological Conservation
Product Description
Despite its supreme importance and the threat of its global crash, biodiversity remains poorly understood both empirically and theoretically. This ambitious book presents a new, general neutral theory to explain the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity in a biogeographic context.
Until now biogeography (the study of the geographic distribution of species) and biodiversity (the study of species richness and relative species abundance) have had largely disjunct intellectual histories. In this book, Stephen Hubbell develops a formal mathematical theory that unifies these two fields. When a speciation process is incorporated into Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's now classical theory of island biogeography, the generalized theory predicts the existence of a universal, dimensionless biodiversity number. In the theory, this fundamental biodiversity number, together with the migration or dispersal rate, completely determines the steady-state distribution of species richness and relative species abundance on local to large geographic spatial scales and short-term to evolutionary time scales.
Although neutral, Hubbell's theory is nevertheless able to generate many nonobvious, testable, and remarkably accurate quantitative predictions about biodiversity and biogeography. In many ways Hubbell's theory is the ecological analog to the neutral theory of genetic drift in genetics. The unified neutral theory of biogeography and biodiversity should stimulate research in new theoretical and empirical directions by ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and biogeographers.
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This is a book about a new general theory of biodiversity in a geographical context. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
This is a book about a new general theory of biodiversity in a geographical context. Read the first page
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53 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Towards a unified thoery, but not there yet
5 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
A couple of years ago, Dr. Jim Brown (Univ. New Mexico) wrote an article in the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) website indicating that he had not seen any really significant new ideas in ecology during the last few year. Well, we have one.
In the hierarchy of biological systems, ecology deals with the highest and most complex levels. Explanation for patterns of abundance and distribution of organisms have been either too specific that only applies to a few species or even one, or too general that can not be tested (remember the ghost of competition's past).
Ecologists working at the community level have mostly been guided by the general principle that interactions tend to determine the diversity of communities. On the larger scale of biogeography, researchers considered that local diversity tends to be a function of a regional species pool. This debate became very contested in the early 1980's and continued for almost a decade, without any meaningful progress. Nonetheless, significant achivements in both areas of inquiry were made.
Hubbell takes advantage of the increased large-scale reasearch in community ecology (like the Smithsonian-MAB biodiversity network of plots) coupled with the ever more manipulative and reductionist approach to biogeography. Is important to add here Hubbell's own contribution to biodiversity research is substantial. Furthermore, the originality of the work is what sets this monograph appart from the last few in the series. The application of random walk models (i.e., ecological drift) to the organization of communities is not a truly new approach. What make is unique is that then he incorporates immigration and extinction rates across space (classical MacArthur-Wilson), and can then predict a range of abundances and distributions. He supplies ample data from tropical systems that agree with model's predictions. The more interesting aspect is when the data doesn't agree. Here there is plenty of productive work to be performed.
One point that Hubbell makes concerning the "triviality" of the nuetrality assumption. Can there be cases when the differential survival of individuals lead to deviations from the theory's prediction? I think that the assumption of neutrality is not as trivial as Hubbell makes it.
Overall, is probably one of the most intriguing and original works of the last decade. If you are interested in ecology, biogeography, and even conservation, this book will challenge what you know and how should we look at patterns and process of biodiversity.
In the hierarchy of biological systems, ecology deals with the highest and most complex levels. Explanation for patterns of abundance and distribution of organisms have been either too specific that only applies to a few species or even one, or too general that can not be tested (remember the ghost of competition's past).
Ecologists working at the community level have mostly been guided by the general principle that interactions tend to determine the diversity of communities. On the larger scale of biogeography, researchers considered that local diversity tends to be a function of a regional species pool. This debate became very contested in the early 1980's and continued for almost a decade, without any meaningful progress. Nonetheless, significant achivements in both areas of inquiry were made.
Hubbell takes advantage of the increased large-scale reasearch in community ecology (like the Smithsonian-MAB biodiversity network of plots) coupled with the ever more manipulative and reductionist approach to biogeography. Is important to add here Hubbell's own contribution to biodiversity research is substantial. Furthermore, the originality of the work is what sets this monograph appart from the last few in the series. The application of random walk models (i.e., ecological drift) to the organization of communities is not a truly new approach. What make is unique is that then he incorporates immigration and extinction rates across space (classical MacArthur-Wilson), and can then predict a range of abundances and distributions. He supplies ample data from tropical systems that agree with model's predictions. The more interesting aspect is when the data doesn't agree. Here there is plenty of productive work to be performed.
One point that Hubbell makes concerning the "triviality" of the nuetrality assumption. Can there be cases when the differential survival of individuals lead to deviations from the theory's prediction? I think that the assumption of neutrality is not as trivial as Hubbell makes it.
Overall, is probably one of the most intriguing and original works of the last decade. If you are interested in ecology, biogeography, and even conservation, this book will challenge what you know and how should we look at patterns and process of biodiversity.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Good theory, poor explication
18 Oct 2006
Format:Paperback
Hubbell's work is interesting and thought-provoking. Unfortunately, his writing ability leaves a lot to be desired. As an applied mathematician working with biologists personally I think you should:
1. Specify your (mathematical) model *without* examples or justifications first.
Hubbell mixes his models with examples and rambling justifications. Poorly constructed ones if you ask me. This makes it hard to pull out what exactly the model is sometimes.
2. Make derivations clear and concise and if complicated put them in appendices. Hubbell does none of these. His mathematical reasoning and writing is far below the standard in science and although impressive for an ecologist, substandard for anyone else. He would have strongly benefitted from having a trained mathematician co-write or at least edit his mathy sections. Many of the results are either well known or would be explained differently by someone trained in the explication of mathematics. The importance of this is huge since the result is sometimes his statements are totally unclear. For example, on page 124 he says "as the sample size increase towards infinity..." This is a sample from a finite sized population. So he should be clear and say either sample with replacement, or also taking the population size to infinity, (which is it!) otherwise it doesn't make sense.
I also find his egoism (common in my experience with ecologists) disappointing. While he may have come up with a new theory of biodiversity, he did not come up with many of the underlying models. Unfortunately, he barely pays any respect to the countless other people who paved the way for his results. For example, his species abundance distribution is just the Ewen's sampling formula from population genetics, derived in 1972. In fact, the model side of the entire theory comes straight out of population genetics. Yes it explains something different, but it would be nice to see something at least some acknowledgement of that (something he is clearly aware of since he cites many of the popgen papers).
Also, the reference list is incomplete and the index is one of the worst I have come across recently. Paying for a good indexer is always worth the money.
In short, the ideas in this book are important, but the book itself is cluttered and not as clear as it could be. So I average 5 stars and 1 star and get 3 stars.
1. Specify your (mathematical) model *without* examples or justifications first.
Hubbell mixes his models with examples and rambling justifications. Poorly constructed ones if you ask me. This makes it hard to pull out what exactly the model is sometimes.
2. Make derivations clear and concise and if complicated put them in appendices. Hubbell does none of these. His mathematical reasoning and writing is far below the standard in science and although impressive for an ecologist, substandard for anyone else. He would have strongly benefitted from having a trained mathematician co-write or at least edit his mathy sections. Many of the results are either well known or would be explained differently by someone trained in the explication of mathematics. The importance of this is huge since the result is sometimes his statements are totally unclear. For example, on page 124 he says "as the sample size increase towards infinity..." This is a sample from a finite sized population. So he should be clear and say either sample with replacement, or also taking the population size to infinity, (which is it!) otherwise it doesn't make sense.
I also find his egoism (common in my experience with ecologists) disappointing. While he may have come up with a new theory of biodiversity, he did not come up with many of the underlying models. Unfortunately, he barely pays any respect to the countless other people who paved the way for his results. For example, his species abundance distribution is just the Ewen's sampling formula from population genetics, derived in 1972. In fact, the model side of the entire theory comes straight out of population genetics. Yes it explains something different, but it would be nice to see something at least some acknowledgement of that (something he is clearly aware of since he cites many of the popgen papers).
Also, the reference list is incomplete and the index is one of the worst I have come across recently. Paying for a good indexer is always worth the money.
In short, the ideas in this book are important, but the book itself is cluttered and not as clear as it could be. So I average 5 stars and 1 star and get 3 stars.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Very thorough book on neutral theory in ecology by the man himself
6 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The author presents a thorough case for his neutral theory of biogeography. He gives a full historical account of its development, and presents plenty of results from publications and simulations, essentially expounding point for point the search for more precise answers to the questions, why are there so many species, and why are they distributed they way they are? Full of interesting insights, and many points are applicable to other sciences as well - economics come to mind. One thing that might have been useful is a more explicit discussion of other neutral theories, say the theories of genetic drift, which predate Hubbell's equal named "ecological drift". But within its stated scope the book is very complete and highly readable as well. Maybe I should mention that I am writing as a scientist - it is not a typical pop science book to read on the train. It truly is a science book. It does not demand much prior knowledge but it does demand attention.
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