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Homage to Ramon Margalef.
88
Book Rtciews / Ecological
Homage to Ramon Margalef Homage to Ramon Margalef: Joandombnec Ros and Narcis Prat (Editors). Universitat de Barcelona Publications, Barcelona, ISBN 84-475-0019-5, 1992, 432 pp. Ramon Margalef is one of the most influential Ecologists alive, by virtue of his productivity (a half dozen books and more than 400 scientific papers), the quality and diversity of his efforts (often superb in both detail and scope) and his teaching (more than 36 PhD students and many, many other investigators influenced strongly by his writings and visits). He has, in essence, introduced Ecology to the Spanish-speaking world, was Spain’s first professor of Ecology, and developed and headed its first marine station. He has been greatly honored in Spain as well as the United States, where, for example, he was one of the first Honorary Foreign Members named to the Ecological Society of America. Margalef has written dozens of remarkable papers on each aspect and level of ecology, from the taxonomy and autecology of phytoplankton to the impact of humans on the energy flows and biogeochemistry of the biosphere. For him there is no focus on scale or approach, for it is all equally interesting and important. His papers skip from the most straightforwardly taxonomic or empirical to the complex and, some might say, opaquely theoretical. The importance of Margalef is as much based on the fact that he wrote his most important works in Spanish as it is on his own remarkable productivity. Spanish is the second most widely used language in the world, and most Spanish-speaking ecologists trace their ancestry to Margalef directly, or indirectly through his students or his massive. authoritative and encyclopedic books, Oecologia and Limnologia. They are the standard textbooks in the Spanish-speaking world, and are displayed proudly on the bookshelves of many North American Ecologists. He was one of the two or three major influences in my own graduate education in the U.S. His impact has been enormous, and it is hard to find very much serious criticism. This book celebrates Margalefs 70th birthday, and his life, with a collection of 52 papers by colleagues and former students meant “more at celebrating this continuing activity than remembering time past as is so often the case.” The book also includes a summary of Margalefs remarkable life, a full bibliography of his half dozen books and more than 400 scientific papers, and a list of the PhD dissertations done under his direction. Although virtually all contributors are Span-
Economics
I I (1994) 85-89
ish, the papers are in good English. The quality of the production is good. Like all books of this type. however, the papers are of uneven quality, and many chapters are of interest only to specialists in either the subject matter or the region. Most pertain to the basic ecology of Spain and especially, the Catalan and Northwest Mediterranean regions. Many are taxonomic or disciplinary, but the diversity is very large. Examples include: the hydrology and groundwater interactions of the heavily dammed rivers of Spain, the taxonomy and diversity of the planktonic communities of Iberian reservoirs, lakes, estuaries and the adjacent Mediterranean, biodiversity in underwater caves, and production levels for woody vegetation, benthic plants and bacteria. Many papers made the point that natural disturbance was far more important than biotic interactions in determining the nature of communities and ecosystems. There is a great deal of useful information here, although a synthesis or overview of the various papers, perhaps by Margalef himself, would have been a welcome addition. The best papers include Sabetes and Gili’s short, but well-focused review of the processes controlling fish year class strength in the Western Mediterranean. Apparently under Margalefs influence, Spanish fisheries biologists have not bought into the density-dependent foolishness that has dominated much fisheries work in the English-speaking world, but instead have focused on the importance of critical climatic and other external forcing functions, and on patterns of predation. I also liked Catalan’s analysis of the relation between lake morphology and productivity. Ballesteros’ chapter on community structure and productivity of seaweeds is clearly and energetically written. Penuelas’ chapter on the past, present and future effects of changing atmospheric gases was extremely erudite, linking biological processes from subcellular to global levels. It would make a very thought-provoking addition to nearly any level of education in biology. I believe the papers with a more theoretical bent tend to be far less successful. Ecology theory is often very abstract. highly mathematical, and only infrequently subjected to explicit and rigorous empirical tests. The theoretical chapters presented here do not break with that tradition. More generally, the intellectual leaders in ecology, both the English-speaking ones and Margalef himself, have had a tendency to massage mathematically, and hence obfuscate, data, perhaps to give a veneer of sophistication to what might otherwise be considered simplistic, and to plot graphs without numbers on the axes. Both approaches serve ecology
Book Reriews /Ecological
poorly, in my opinion. On the other hand, and commendably, a number of papers tested explicitly with new data, and sometimes rejected, some of Margalefs own early theories. Collectively the chapters represent a useful synthesis of available information for those interested in Catalan or Mediterranean ecology, in part because of the thoroughness of the literature reviewed. It is also a good entre into the world of Margalef for someone
Economics I1 (1994) 85-89
89
who does not read Spanish. As such it is a fitting tribute to the remarkable and productive scientific life of Ramon Margalef.
Charles A.S. Hall College of Enrv’ronmental Science artd Forestry State Uni~*ersityof Nenl York Syracuse, NY 13210. USA
Book Rtciews / Ecological
Homage to Ramon Margalef Homage to Ramon Margalef: Joandombnec Ros and Narcis Prat (Editors). Universitat de Barcelona Publications, Barcelona, ISBN 84-475-0019-5, 1992, 432 pp. Ramon Margalef is one of the most influential Ecologists alive, by virtue of his productivity (a half dozen books and more than 400 scientific papers), the quality and diversity of his efforts (often superb in both detail and scope) and his teaching (more than 36 PhD students and many, many other investigators influenced strongly by his writings and visits). He has, in essence, introduced Ecology to the Spanish-speaking world, was Spain’s first professor of Ecology, and developed and headed its first marine station. He has been greatly honored in Spain as well as the United States, where, for example, he was one of the first Honorary Foreign Members named to the Ecological Society of America. Margalef has written dozens of remarkable papers on each aspect and level of ecology, from the taxonomy and autecology of phytoplankton to the impact of humans on the energy flows and biogeochemistry of the biosphere. For him there is no focus on scale or approach, for it is all equally interesting and important. His papers skip from the most straightforwardly taxonomic or empirical to the complex and, some might say, opaquely theoretical. The importance of Margalef is as much based on the fact that he wrote his most important works in Spanish as it is on his own remarkable productivity. Spanish is the second most widely used language in the world, and most Spanish-speaking ecologists trace their ancestry to Margalef directly, or indirectly through his students or his massive. authoritative and encyclopedic books, Oecologia and Limnologia. They are the standard textbooks in the Spanish-speaking world, and are displayed proudly on the bookshelves of many North American Ecologists. He was one of the two or three major influences in my own graduate education in the U.S. His impact has been enormous, and it is hard to find very much serious criticism. This book celebrates Margalefs 70th birthday, and his life, with a collection of 52 papers by colleagues and former students meant “more at celebrating this continuing activity than remembering time past as is so often the case.” The book also includes a summary of Margalefs remarkable life, a full bibliography of his half dozen books and more than 400 scientific papers, and a list of the PhD dissertations done under his direction. Although virtually all contributors are Span-
Economics
I I (1994) 85-89
ish, the papers are in good English. The quality of the production is good. Like all books of this type. however, the papers are of uneven quality, and many chapters are of interest only to specialists in either the subject matter or the region. Most pertain to the basic ecology of Spain and especially, the Catalan and Northwest Mediterranean regions. Many are taxonomic or disciplinary, but the diversity is very large. Examples include: the hydrology and groundwater interactions of the heavily dammed rivers of Spain, the taxonomy and diversity of the planktonic communities of Iberian reservoirs, lakes, estuaries and the adjacent Mediterranean, biodiversity in underwater caves, and production levels for woody vegetation, benthic plants and bacteria. Many papers made the point that natural disturbance was far more important than biotic interactions in determining the nature of communities and ecosystems. There is a great deal of useful information here, although a synthesis or overview of the various papers, perhaps by Margalef himself, would have been a welcome addition. The best papers include Sabetes and Gili’s short, but well-focused review of the processes controlling fish year class strength in the Western Mediterranean. Apparently under Margalefs influence, Spanish fisheries biologists have not bought into the density-dependent foolishness that has dominated much fisheries work in the English-speaking world, but instead have focused on the importance of critical climatic and other external forcing functions, and on patterns of predation. I also liked Catalan’s analysis of the relation between lake morphology and productivity. Ballesteros’ chapter on community structure and productivity of seaweeds is clearly and energetically written. Penuelas’ chapter on the past, present and future effects of changing atmospheric gases was extremely erudite, linking biological processes from subcellular to global levels. It would make a very thought-provoking addition to nearly any level of education in biology. I believe the papers with a more theoretical bent tend to be far less successful. Ecology theory is often very abstract. highly mathematical, and only infrequently subjected to explicit and rigorous empirical tests. The theoretical chapters presented here do not break with that tradition. More generally, the intellectual leaders in ecology, both the English-speaking ones and Margalef himself, have had a tendency to massage mathematically, and hence obfuscate, data, perhaps to give a veneer of sophistication to what might otherwise be considered simplistic, and to plot graphs without numbers on the axes. Both approaches serve ecology
Book Reriews /Ecological
poorly, in my opinion. On the other hand, and commendably, a number of papers tested explicitly with new data, and sometimes rejected, some of Margalefs own early theories. Collectively the chapters represent a useful synthesis of available information for those interested in Catalan or Mediterranean ecology, in part because of the thoroughness of the literature reviewed. It is also a good entre into the world of Margalef for someone
Economics I1 (1994) 85-89
89
who does not read Spanish. As such it is a fitting tribute to the remarkable and productive scientific life of Ramon Margalef.
Charles A.S. Hall College of Enrv’ronmental Science artd Forestry State Uni~*ersityof Nenl York Syracuse, NY 13210. USA