Chance and Change: Ecology for Conservationists

Most politically active environmentalists, writes the late biologist William Drury, have at least some knowledge of equilibrium theory, "the characteristic ecology taught in introductory textbooks" through which the so-called balance of nature is explained. Believing that this theory, if oversimplified, can lead to doctrinaire reactions (the view, for example, that human economic development is necessarily harmful to the environment), Drury proposes a more complex understanding of nature that takes into account chance and change, and that recognizes that "natural disturbance is too frequent for equilibrium models to be useful." Discussing notions such as microcosm versus macrocosm, the great chain of being, and succession, Drury offers a vigorous textbook that deepens our understanding of how the world works. --Gregory McNamee