This book discusses the impact of recent advances in the theory of "scaling relationships" and identifies critical issues that must be considered if experimental results are used to understand the temporal and spatial scales of actual ecosystems.
The complexity of ecosystems complicates experimental design. How, for example, does a scientist draw boundaries when studying species effects and interactions? Once these boundaries are drawn, how does one treat factors external to that study? Will the failure to consider external factors affect one's ability to extrapolate information across temporal and spatial scales? This volume provides a compilation from a broad range of ecologists with extensive experimental research experience that addresses these and other questions of scaling relations.