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.