Robert E. Ulanowicz and Trevor Platt
(Editors)

Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 213

NRC Research Press
Subscription Office, M-55
National Research Council
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E6
CANADA

1985/260pp./Paper $17.95/ISBN 0-660-11900-5Holistic descriptions of marine ecosystems offer an alternative to characterizing biotic communities in terms of coupled process models. Most quantitative narratives of whole ecosystem organization and development draw from five subject areas: Thermodynamics provides the phenomenological and macroscopic perspective necessary to perceive whole system behavior. Statistical Mechanics is an historical example of how microscopic observations and hypotheses may be reconciled with their macroscopic counterparts. Ataxonomic Aggregations of organisms, such as classifications according to particle size or metabolic rate, rely less upon “microscopic” (i.e., taxonomic) features of the ecosystem and could be more appropriate elements with which to build holistic theories in marine ecology. Flow Analysis is quantitative theory germane to the study of how the parts of an ecosystem directly and indirectly affect each other within the context of the entire system. Lastly, Information Theory is a formalism capable of bridging and ultimately unifying the preceding four disciplines.

Holistic considerations of ecosystem behavior tend, at this early stage, to be highly abstract. The existing theories, nonetheless, have practical implications for existing biological programs. Various holistic hypotheses may be tested in both exploited and non- exploited marine ecosystems. Macroscopic concepts can promote a better understanding of biological- physical interactions and suggest the development of new technological instrumentation and methods. Finally, whole community descriptions beg for the design of new, large- scale, cooperative experiments in biological oceanography.

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