A groundbreaking approach to scale and scaling in ecological theory
and practice
Scale is one of the most important concepts in ecology, yet researchers
often find it difficult to find ecological systems that lend themselves
to its study. Scaling in Ecology with a Model System synthesizes
nearly three decades of research on the ecology of Sarracenia
purpurea--the northern pitcher plant--showing how this carnivorous
plant and its associated food web of microbes and macrobes can inform
the challenging question of scaling in ecology.
Drawing on a wealth of findings from their pioneering lab and field
experiments, Aaron Ellison and Nicholas Gotelli reveal how the
Sarracenia microecosystem has emerged as a model system for
experimental ecology. Ellison and Gotelli examine Sarracenia at a
hierarchy of spatial scales--individual pitchers within plants, plants
within bogs, and bogs within landscapes--and demonstrate how pitcher
plants can serve as replicate miniature ecosystems that can be studied
in wetlands throughout the United States and Canada. They show how
research on the Sarracenia microecosystem proceeds much more rapidly
than studies of larger, more slowly changing ecosystems such as forests,
grasslands, lakes, or streams, which are more difficult to replicate and
experimentally manipulate.
Scaling in Ecology with a Model System offers new insights into
ecophysiology and stoichiometry, demography, extinction risk and species
distribution models, food webs and trophic dynamics, and tipping points
and regime shifts.
