ARTICLE IN PRESS

Basic and Applied Ecology 5 (2004) 593

doi:10.1016/j.

www.elsevier.de/baae

BOOK REVIEW

R. Wittig, B. Streit, Okologie (Ecology), UTBBasics, Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8252-2542-9, 2004 (304pp., h 19.90).

This book presents fundamentals in ecology basedon a lecture by the authors. It aims at covering allmatters required by students with ecology as minorsubject, and for undergraduate students specializ-ing in ecology. The layout is very clear, includinghighlighted abstracts to each chapter and manyfigures. A set of questions is provided at the end ofeach chapter, so that students can check theirlearning. The role of ecology as an applied,interdisciplinary field is stressed, and societalchallenges as well as career prospects for ecologistsare briefly addressed in the introductory chapter.This is followed by chapters on autecology, popula-tion ecology and evolutionary ecology with a single-species perspective. Interactions between speciesare arranged along the levels of bisystems, com-munities and ecosystems. Then, three chapterspresent examples of European freshwater andmarine ecosystems. Climate as a key factor istreated in chapters on the arrangement of biomesalong climatic zones, the role of single climaticfactors, and man-made climate change. Terrestrialsystems are introduced with a chapter on soils. Thecreation of cultural landscapes by humans, theecology of temperate forests, agricultural andurban ecosystems are each devoted a chapter.Three final chapters deal with applied aspects suchas bioindication and monitoring, environmentalprotection and sustainable development, and theconservation of species and habitats.

The book’s focus on Central Europe allowsstudents to recover examples in their closesurroundings and on field excursions. Given itsshortness, the book provides an impressively broadcoverage of ecological matters. Thereby, muchroom is devoted to illustrative patterns andexamples, while deductive approaches are lessrepresented. The important role of experiments

baae.2004.09.007

in ecology is largely neglected. This becomesobvious when, in the introductory chapter, neitherthe ability to plan and conduct experiments norstatistical analyses are mentioned as essentialknowledge for ecologists (pp. 17, 18). The pre-valence of descriptive approaches also explainswhy mechanistic relationships, which are amenableto experimentation, are under-represented. Topicssuch as top-down and bottom-up control in foodwebs, predator-induced coexistence, trophic cas-cades, or interactions between above- and below-ground organisms are missing. Ecosystem function-ing is considered only marginally in Chapter 7 onecosystems. Biological control would deserve moreattention, providing some striking examples of howstrong trophic interactions can be. Such currenttopics may be missed especially by studentsplanning to specialize in ecology. But also someclassics are missing, above all the latitudinalgradient of biodiversity, which may be the longestrecognized pattern in ecology at all. Severaldefinitions and concepts are unusual, such as thedefinition of g-diversity as structural diversity ofthe habitat instead of the overall diversity in a setof samples. The distinction between biosphere anda human-shaped ‘technosphere’ is barely justifi-able and not internationally in use. Against today’sgeneral effort to keep scientific texts as easilycomprehendible as possible, large amounts ofjargon are introduced by the authors, such as atthe beginning of the community ecology chapter.Otherwise, the language is clear and straightfor-ward. Overall, the book is a well-written, conciseintroduction to ecology with an appealing format.Despite its bias towards pattern description, itcovers a very wide range of matters. It will beparticularly useful for students attending a classicalGerman ecology curriculum.

Martin SchmidtE-mail address: martin.schmidt@zos.unibe.ch