humanized landscapes

Humanized LandscapesAuthor(s): CHARLES C. MANNSource: BioScience, Vol. 57, No. 9 (October 2007), pp. 787-788Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1641/B570912 .Accessed: 25/04/2011 23:19

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www.biosciencemag.org October 2007 / Vol. 57 No. 9 • BioScience 787

Fall Focus on Books

Time and Complexity in HistoricalEcology: Studies in the NeotropicalLowlands. William Balée and Clark L.Erickson, eds. Columbia UniversityPress, New York, 2006. 432 pp., illus.$80.00 (ISBN 9780231135627 cloth).

T ime and Complexity in Historical Ecol-ogy is a sustained argument—almost

a manifesto—masked as a collection ofarticles. Subjects range from the Peténbasin in Guatemala and Belize to theAndean shore, but the heart of the bookis that fabled storehouse of biodiversity,the Amazon forest. Contrary to long-held belief, the contributors insist, all ofthese landscapes are not little disturbedor pristine, but “domesticated,” “culti-vated,”“cultural artifacts that archaeolo-gists can recover and recognize,” even “aform of the built environment.” Indeed,editors William Balée and Clark L.Erickson claim that these places cannotbe understood by biologists without ref-erence to “humans’ intentional, long-term, custodial influence,” because theenvironments are usually shaped, andin many cases actually created, by thosehumans.

Historical ecology, as the editors callthis perspective, inverts the widely knownadaptational model, in which culturesadapt to the resources of their environ-ments, with the differing adaptationsexplaining the main differences betweenone culture and another. Instead of fittingthemselves into ecological constraints,Balée and Erickson argue, human groupsrapidly “transform most of those con-straints into negligible analytic phenom-ena,” so that the environment becomes a“physical record of intentionality.”

To some extent, this perspective em-braces the new ecology emblematized inBotkin’s Discordant Harmonies. But ratherthan assigning a starring role to “chanceand randomness”(Botkin 1990), the con-tributors to this volume see ecosystems asdriven for millennia by human agency.Controversially, they explicitly reject nor-mative terms like “beneficial” or “de-grading” to describe that agency’s

environmental impact, because, Erick-son writes,“There is no ‘natural’ baselineor benchmark of pristine wilderness thatshould be used as a standard for com-parisons...if humans played a major rolein creating the very landscapes wherebiodiversity and nature are said to occur” (p. 246).

Instead of reading the human storiesencoded in landscapes, Michael Heck-enberger writes, researchers have takenthe “absence of robust historical knowl-edge”—the relative dearth of writtendocuments from pre-Columbian soci-eties—“as a lack of history at all.... Thehistory is ‘naturalized’ into an imagery ofpristine wilderness and primitiveness”(p. 312). One need only look at a Green-peace calendar to see what he means.

The articles in this volume exemplifydiverse ways of reading these landscapes.David G. Campbell and his team con-tribute a clear quantitative study demon-strating that the array of tree species in theGuatemalan Petén still bears the stamp ofthe Maya more than a thousand yearsafter their ninth-century “collapse,”eventhough the region has been thinly in-habited since then. Peter W. Stahl arguesthat the distribution of prehistoric small-mammal remains—especially those ofgeneralists with broad niche require-ments—indicates where forests were dis-turbed in past centuries. More than 90percent of western Ecuador’s Jama Rivervalley, thickly forested as late as 1920, isnow cleared. But Stahl’s examination ofmore than 85,000 archaeofaunal speci-mens from the region “strongly suggest[s]a prevalence of unstable edge environ-ments and forest fragments...spanningat least 3600 years” (p. 145). The Jama’sdense, nearly unbroken canopy, in otherwords, was a recent phenomenon, anecological novelty no more than a fewcenturies old.

How did the contemporary tropicalforest come into existence? The researchis far from definitive, but articles byErickson, Heckenberger, William M.Denevan, and especially Eduardo G.Neves and the late James B. Petersen pro-

vide some clue. The Amazon basin hasbeen inhabited for at least 13,000 years(Roosevelt et al. 1996). Gradually thoseearly inhabitants turned from foragingto “landscape management,” Neves andPetersen suggest, beginning by scatter-ing useful palms from half a dozen gen-era, especially Bactris gasipaes (peachpalm). This low-intensity landscape man-agement “may well have made a sub-stantial impact,” but it is hard todistinguish today from nonhumanprocesses because it represents “the cu-mulative outcome of individual, small-scale interventions.” Perhaps 3000 yearsago, though, there was “a radical shift ineconomic and social patterns in Ama-zonia,” and some societies began “high-intensity” landscape management. Theresult, according to Denevan, was thecreation of landscapes of “semi-inten-sively cultivated fields intermingled withfruit orchards, managed fallows, housegardens, and brief bush fallows, withsemi-permanent settlements, some num-bering thousands of people, surroundedby zones of modified forest manipulatedby hunting and gathering activities” (p.154)—an intricate system that both cre-ated and exploited the swaths of rich soiltoday called terra preta do índio.

Among the most impressive examplesare the Llanos de Mojos (Mojos plains)in eastern Bolivia. Roughly twice the sizeof Ohio, the region is seasonally floodedwith up to a meter of water for monthsat a time. Beginning perhaps 2000 yearsago, Erickson argues, its original inhab-itants humanized much of the landscapeby erecting 10,000 settlement mounds,“thousands of linear kilometers of cause-ways and canals,” hundreds of still enig-matic circular ditches, countless earthenfish weirs, and thousands of hectares ofraised fields. The goal was to create “mil-lions of linear kilometers of rich terres-trial aquatic ecotones or edges in whatwas previously a relatively homogeneous,flat environment.” This “patchwork ofartificial landforms,” to Erickson’s mind,was “as productive and sustainable andprobably equally species-rich as the

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forests that exist there today.” (I havetwice visited the area with Erickson, onceaccompanied by Balée; both times I waspowerfully struck by the evidence of land-scape domestication.)

This entire system, and others like it,fell apart in the 16th century. Between1500 and 1700, European disease, slavery,and war killed 90 percent or more of thenative population. With no hands on thetiller, so to speak, landscapes throughoutthe hemisphere went feral, which is notthe same as going “wild.” The tropicalforest we seek to protect today wasin significant part the accidental by-product of this horrific loss.

Driven by population loss and fear ofenslavement, many groups gave up agri-culture in favor of foraging; Loretta A.Cormier tracks one such group, theGuajá in eastern Amazonia, who sur-vived by “patch-to-patch movementfrom old fallow field to old fallowfield,” living off the landscape domesti-cated by their predecessors. Others con-

tinued to farm, Denevan notes, but in anew way: slash-and-burn. Althoughecologists have both celebrated slash-and-burn as adaptive and vilified it asdestructive, they have commonlyregarded it as an age-old practice. Stoneaxes were such inefficient instrumentsof land clearing, Denevan writes, that“long-fallow shifting cultivation wasprobably difficult, even with the girdlingand burning of tree trunks.”Once patchesof forest were opened up, farmers had anincentive to keep using them, with shortfallow times to reduce weeds. By con-trast, metal axes are up to 60 times moreefficient (Carneiro 1979)—ideal for pop-ulations that want to move quickly inand out.

Many ecologists have come to acceptthese ideas, at least in part, but theyremain anathema to most conservationgroups and are a source of puzzlement toland managers, for whom the vision ofpre-Columbian wilderness is a usefulbenchmark. For these people, Time

and Complexity will provide little con-solation. The task of understanding andconserving the lowland Neotropics, itsuggests, falls into the purview of anthro-pology, archaeology, geography, and theother human sciences.

CHARLES C. MANNCharles C. Mann (e-mail:

[email protected]) is the author,most recently, of 1491: New Revelations

of the Americas Before Columbus(Knopf, 2005).

References citedBotkin DB. 1990. Discordant Harmonies: A New

Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. New York:

Oxford University Press.

Carneiro RC. 1979. Tree felling with the stone axe:

An experiment carried out among the

Yanomamö Indians of southern Venezuela.

Pages 21–58 in Kramer C, ed. Ethnoarchaeol-

ogy: Implications for Archaeology. New York:

Columbia University Press.

Roosevelt AC, et al. 1996. Paleoindian cave dwellers

in the Amazon: The peopling of the Americas.

Science 272: 373–384.

doi:10.1641/B570912Include this information when citing this material.

HUMAN AGENCY GONE AWRY

People and Nature: An Introductionto Human Ecological Relations.Emilio F. Moran. Blackwell, Malden,MA, 2006. 232 pp., illus. $30.95 (ISBN9781405105729 paper).

We certainly live in ecologicallyinteresting times. In 2005, the

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment(MEA)—the most comprehensive sus-tainability assessment ever undertaken—proclaimed: “At the heart of thisassessment is a stark warning. Humanactivity is putting such a strain on the nat-ural functions of the Earth that the abil-ity of the planet’s ecosystems to sustainfuture generations can no longer be takenfor granted” (MEA 2005). The languageis plain enough. Humanity has a collec-tive problem that demands determinedaction by the entire world community.But wait a minute—didn’t the Union of


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Concerned Scientists (UCS) “warn allhumanity” back in 1992 that “a greatchange in our stewardship of the earthand the life on it is required, if vasthuman misery is to be avoided and ourglobal home on this planet is not to beirretrievably mutilated” (UCS 1992)? Ifthe MEA’s yellow flag is justified, it seemsthat the UCS’s earlier, even more stri-dent warning has had minimal effect.Just what is going on here? Why does thepurportedly most intelligent and self-aware species on Earth seem bent ondestroying its habitat just like any otherplague species?

Anyone looking for insight into thisquestion might naturally be drawn toEmilo F. Moran’s People and Nature: AnIntroduction to Human Ecological Rela-tions. The book’s title is enticing enough,and Moran has impeccable credentials.Awell-known ecological anthropologist,he is Rudy Professor of Anthropologyand the director of the AnthropologicalCenter for Training and Research onGlobal Environmental Change, as wellas a professor of environmental sciences,at the University of Indiana. The goal ofPeople and Nature is ambitious and itsscope wide ranging. Moran promises “to

introduce the reader to the evidence,both historical and contemporary, forhow the reciprocal interactions betweenpeople and nature have developed, the ur-gency for action now to prevent trulydisastrous consequences, and to makesuggestions as to how we might go aboutdoing so” (p. xi); for the most part, hedelivers.

Moran begins by establishing an es-sential element of context—in the past50 years there has been a sea change innearly every aspect of humanity’s rela-tionship with nature. Under the inex-orable pressure of exponential growth, themost recent doubling of the global ma-terial economy has taken us from a half-empty to an ecologically overfull world.Moran also emphasizes human agency—people’s active, cumulative role in accel-erating the degradation of the ecosphereas well as our potential to arrest theprocess. Significantly, he acknowledgesthat the “we” in this context does not ap-ply evenly to all members of the humanfamily.“Clearly, the burden on the planettoday is coming from urban-industrialsocieties and this ‘we’ has to step forwardnow and take responsibility for solving

the problem it has created. We must leadby example” (p. 2).

Going further against the mainstreamgrain, Moran explicitly fingers global-ization for its role in accelerating thedegradation of critical ecosystems.Hunter-gatherers and even preindustrialfarmers lived their lives spatially withinthe ecosystems that supported them andthus suffered the direct and immediateconsequences of overhunting or the mis-use of local landscapes. Regrettably, glob-alization and urbanization, two of themost powerfully prevalent of contem-porary trends, effectively short-circuitthis critical feedback mechanism by dis-tancing people both spatially and psy-chologically from the ecosystems thatsupport them. The materially wealthyare not directly affected by the negativeconsequences of their consumer lifestyleson distant supportive ecosystems.

Overall, the major themes of Peopleand Nature provide a menu rich enoughto satisfy any beginning student of eco-logical anthropology. Moran explores thehistory of human–environment interac-tions in all its diversity, both bleak and en-couraging; describes the web of life andhumanity’s role in it; discusses adaptation


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and how various peoples use informationto adjust to changing ecological realities;explains why sustainability represents anunprecedented challenge to humanity’scollective future; and argues that in de-veloping an appropriate global response,the primacy of consumption and mate-rial accumulation in the wealthy worldmust give way to values rooted in reci-procity, human dignity, and mutual trust.

Of course, any ambitious book isbound to have weaknesses, and this onehas two that especially grate. First, thetext too frequently assumes the quality ofan unedited first draft. In describing sys-tems’ resistance to dramatic change, forexample, Moran writes,“As with trying toshift the course of an ocean liner or alarge tanker, it takes quite a bit of time tochange the forward momentum of aship”(p. 155). The simile acquires mean-ing in context only if the reader substi-tutes “ecological change” for “a ship.” Inother places, verbless or isolated phrasesmasquerade as sentences, and thereare even occasional factual errors. Forexample, it most assuredly does not “nowtake only 32 years for the human popu-lation to double”(p. 114). Moran’s asser-tion implies a global population growthrate of 2.2 percent per year, a rate that hasnever quite been achieved, and which isdouble today’s actual (and declining)population growth rate.

A more important weakness is the au-thor’s prescription for what ails us. Inhis final chapter, Moran all but eschews“global solutions” and underplays col-lective action in favor of individual hu-man agency and “a set of considerationsfor reflection so that each of us, follow-ing our own ethics and conscience, canbegin to construct a set of human eco-logical relations that is consistent withthe sustainability of people in nature”(p. 151). This prescription seems not torecognize, however, that the dominantmaterial ethic in the world today is ram-pant consumerism; that the ecologicallyliterate behave much the same as theuninformed; that humanity has limitedcapacity for extended altruism; and thatmost governments, international insti-tutions, and ordinary people show over-weening confidence in technology tosubstitute for nature. And where does

this leave the many potential lessons ofcultural and ecological anthropology thatone might reasonably have expected fromthis book? Not all preindustrial peoplesdestroyed their supportive ecosystems,nor has the total human enterprise alwaysbeen at odds with nature. Surely there isa missing story here.

In the end, then, Moran does not drawenough from the richness of his owndiscipline. Indeed, he barely touches uponsuch contemporary solutions as ecolog-ically truthful pricing and improvedforeign policy. He mainly exhorts wealthyconsumers to “choose to consume a lotless and become models of a new bio-centric model of production and con-sumption” (p. 158). We must “resist theforces of global consumerism”(p. 166) and “[turn] off our televisions”so that we can “[reconnect] with mem-bers of our families and communitiesand [begin] to buy only what we reallyneed” (p. 168). As any iPod-addictedteenager heading to the mall in the fam-ily SUV is certain to respond,“Oh, yeah,like, that’s totally gonna happen!”With-out a more broadly based policy plat-form for global sustainability, includingstrong collective interventions to forceindividual behavioral change, contem-porary evidence suggests modern hu-mans are likely to continue dismantlingtheir only planetary habitat.

WILLIAM E. REESWilliam E. Rees (e-mail:

[email protected]) is a professorin the School of Community and

Regional Planning at the University ofBritish Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

References cited[MEA] Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005.

Living Beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and

Human Well-being. Statement from the Board.

(6 September 2007; www.millenniumassess

ment.org/documents/document.429.aspx.pdf)

[UCS] Union of Concerned Scientists. 1992. World

Scientists’ Warning to Humanity. (2 August

2007; www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/1992-world-

scientists-warning-to-humanity.html)


A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TOINFLUENCE FIRE POLICY

Wildfire: A Century of Failed ForestPolicy. George Wuerthner. Island Press,Washington, DC, 2006. 350 pp., illus.$75.00 (ISBN 978159726069X cloth).

The ecology and politics of fire are bigtopics, and Wildfire: A Century of

Failed Forest Policy is a big book—its 350softbound pages measure 13-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches, and it weighs more than fivepounds. If you’re strong enough to lug itto a table that can support it, it’s worthtaking a look at. Don’t expect it to fit ona standard bookshelf, however, or in yourpocket or backpack. This is a coffee-tablebook, but one with substantial content,not merely striking photographs ofecosystems aflame or flowering postfiremeadows.

The book has a clear agenda, which oc-casionally gets in the way of its coherency.Sponsored by the Foundation for DeepEcology, and edited and written by GeorgeWuerthner, Wildfire has an evangelicaltone that stems from the voices of formersmoke jumpers and firefighters who havelearned to appreciate the critical role offire in forest ecosystems. Their messageis a bit too strong in some places, butthe book has some excellent chapters andcovers many aspects of this broad topic.

The book starts off on an uneven andpoliticized track with a series of “myths”about fire, each followed by a brief ex-plication of the “truth.”Among the mythsare these: “Big fires are the result of toomuch fuel,” “logging mimics fire,” “bigfires can be stopped,”“fire ‘sterilizes’ the


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land,”“livestock grazing can prevent fires,”“salvage logging after a fire is necessary torestore forests,” and “prescribed burningis an adequate substitute for wildfire.”Like most generalizations, these state-ments are false under some circum-stances, but many are true under otherconditions found in some parts of NorthAmerica and in other parts of the world.The failure to address the variability offire regimes systematically, and thus toemphasize the variation in appropriatemanagement methods, is the primaryweakness of the book.

The text is divided into six main sec-tions, with a short conclusion called“Time to Retire Smokey Bear.” Thefirst section, “Wildfire: Perspectives andVisions,” includes an introduction, byStephen Pyne, and a chapter entitled “Fireand Native Peoples,” by Thomas Vale,that will perpetuate the controversy overthe role of Native Americans in manag-ing fire-maintained ecosystems in NorthAmerica. Although the book’s focus iswildfires in forests, most of the exam-ples of landscapes “humanized”by fire arein grassland and savanna ecosystems.This discrepancy reveals another weak-ness found throughout the book: itsfailure to clarify the differences in fireregimes found across the rainfall andtemperature gradients that influence theecosystems of North America. Enter-taining chapters by Conrad Smith andLes AuCoin address the “incendiarylanguage” that shapes the news andpolitical discussions about fire, and helpto explain the disconnect between firescience and fire policy, which is themajor theme of the book.

The second section,“Fire Ecology: Sto-ries and Studies,” will be of most interestto scientists. Wuerthner provides a goodsummary of the 1988 Yellowstone fire,and Jan Wagtendonk and DominickDellaSalla give overviews of fire ecologyin the Sierra Nevada and Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregions, respectively. JonKeeley and C. J. Fotheringham discussthe ecology and management of themost problematic interface betweensociety and fire in North America, thechaparral of southern California. Theseauthors provide a good overview ofthe fire regimes of North America and a

thorough discussion of the ecological,climatic, and social processes that makethe California shrublands such an inter-esting and dangerous ecosystem. ThomasSwetnam, Craig Allen, and Julio Betan-court’s chapter,“Applied Historical Ecol-ogy: Using the Past to Manage for thefuture,” summarizes their extensiveresearch on the effects of past climaticvariations on the vegetation patterns andfire regimes of the American West. Otherchapters in this section address fire inthe Southwest and in the East, as well asthe effects of fires and succession onforest bird populations.

The third section, “Fire and Its Para-doxes,” is a picture album of many west-ern landscapes in various stages offire-induced succession—lots of beauti-ful pictures. The final three sectionsaddress issues that have been front-pagecontroversies over the past decade orlonger. Part four, “(Un)healthy ForestPolicy: Suppression, Salvage, and Scur-rilous Solutions,” includes the followingchapters:“Vested Interests Masqueradingas Purveyors of Forest Health”(Wuerth-ner), “Ecological Differences and theNeed to Preserve Large Fires” (Wuerth-ner),“Ecological Impacts of Salvage Log-ging” (James Strittholt), “ConventionalSalvage Logging: The Loss of EcologicalReason and Economic Restraint” (ChrisMaser), and “The Role of Livestock Graz-ing in Worsening Fire Severity”(Wuerth-ner). Together, these chapters make astrong case for the superiority of naturalfires—when compared with logging,salvage logging, replanting, and othermanagement techniques—for main-taining the biodiversity and critical func-tions of forest ecosystems.

The fifth section, “The New GravyTrain: The Emergence of the Fire-Military-Industrial Complex,” addressesthe corrupting effect of money on thepolitics of fire management. Chapters inthis section are “The Flawed Economicsof Fire Suppression” (Wuerthner),“TheEconomics of Forest Fuel ReductionStrategies” (Thomas Power),“Money toBurn: Wildfire and the Budget”(RandallO’Toole), and “The War on Wildfire:Firefighting and the Militarization ofForest Fire Management” (TimothyIngalsbee). These chapters provide a good

overview of the history of firefighting asa business and present a disturbing analy-sis of the costs—in lives as well asmoney—versus the benefits of fightingwildfires.

The final section, “Eliminating theSmokescreen: Toward an Intelligent FirePolicy,” offers a few hopeful tidbits, butthey don’t seem to hold much promisefor reversing the disturbing trends de-scribed in other chapters, or for reducingthe political sway of the fire-military-industrial complex. Craig Allen and sev-eral coauthors present a broad plan for

the ecological restoration of the south-western ponderosa pine ecosystems,where a combination of intentional andunintentional fire suppression, along withsuburban sprawl and rural developments,has produced a dangerous mixture ofhousing in a fire-prone ecosystem overmuch of the western United States. Thisproblem is elaborated in the chapter“Sprawling into Disaster: The GrowingImpact of Rural Residential Develop-ment on Wildland Fire Management inthe Greater Yellowstone Area,”by CrystalStanionis and Dennis Glick. John Kristdiscusses the perverse economic incen-tives that fuel rural development in“Burning Down the House: The Role ofDisaster Aid in Subsidizing Catastrophe,”and Brian Nowicki and Todd Schulkepresent a rational plan for minimizing firedamage to homes in “The CommunityProtection Zone: Defending Homes andCommunities from the Threat of ForestFire.”

Who is the target audience for thisbook? The oversized format and beauti-ful pictures make it well suited for the

This kind of prose repels those whose

opinions need to be changed if a more

scientific and rational approach is to be

taken to fire management. I don’t see

any point in putting this much money

and effort into a book for the purpose

of preaching to the choir.


Fall Focus on Books

homes and offices of politicians and busi-nessmen, and the sound science and well-written content of many of the chaptershave the potential to actually changesome minds and influence policy. Un-fortunately, the new-age flavor of some ofthe text and graphics, particularly in theintroduction and conclusion, is likely toalienate those who most need to be in-fluenced. For example, the polarizedworldview laid out in the introduction—complete with a collage of tree stumps,money, Smokey Bear, and the WhiteHouse—is not helpful, nor is the con-cluding chapter,“The Ultimate Firefight:Changing Hearts and Minds” (by AndyKerr), with subheadings such as “Em-power Pyrophiles,”“Distinguish betweenGood and Bad Firefighters,” and “Starvethe Beast.”This kind of prose repels thosewhose opinions need to be changed if amore scientific and rational approach isto be taken to fire management. I don’tsee any point in putting this muchmoney and effort into a book for thepurpose of preaching to the choir. WhileI appreciate Wildfire’s beautiful picturesand interesting science, history, and com-mentary, I would like to see a book likethis have an impact outside the environ-mental movement. Nonetheless, I canrecommend the book’s content for teach-ing about fire issues.

MICHAEL A. HUSTONMichael A. Huston (e-mail:

[email protected]) is a professor inthe Department of Biology at Texas

State University in San Marcos.


WE KNOW IT WHEN WE SEE IT

The Altruism Equation: Seven Scien-tists Search for the Origins of Good-ness. Lee Alan Dugatkin. PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, NJ, 2006.188 pp. $24.95 (ISBN 9780691125909cloth).

In my undergraduate course on animalbehavior, the topic that without fail

generates the most interest, discussion,and often humor is—perhaps unsur-prisingly—mate choice. The next mostattention-grabbing topic is altruism (forthe moment, read as goodness). I believethat altruism ranks so highly on the in-terest scale, so to speak, because it is oneconcept in animal behavior that peoplecan intuitively understand and integrateconceptually into virtually every aspect oftheir lives: their interactions with oth-ers, their political and social institutions,and their religious beliefs. Have we notall wondered for whom or under whatconditions we would be willing to sacri-fice ourselves?

Altruism is a relatively simple conceptto define. It refers to behavior that in-creases the fitness of the recipient at a costto the fitness of the donor. When oneindividual comes to the aid of, or providesresources to, another individual, altruismhas taken place, at least in theory. Altru-ism is a much more complex conceptthan this simple definition implies, how-ever. The complexity lies in defining acurrency of fitness that can be consis-tently applied in studies of different kindsof organisms. The most commonly usedcurrency of fitness is reproductive success;thus, an altruistic act is one that increasesthe reproductive success of a recipientat a cost to the reproductive success of thedonor. But in fact, most real or apparentaltruistic acts occur in a context com-pletely independent of reproduction, ortoward individuals that are past theirreproductive age. The theory can be mod-ified to account for such acts—forexample,“reciprocal altruism”holds thatindividuals help others deemed likelyto reciprocate the help—but any measureof fitness will run into difficulty when itcomes to making general and specifictestable predictions. A second problem isthat empirically, it is often impossible toaccurately quantify the costs (to thedonor) of particular behavioral acts.Whether the aid given consists of pro-tection, food, or any other service orresource, the cost the donor incurs is of-ten only theoretical. Can a theory be rig-orously tested if the individual variablescannot be quantified?

Despite these difficulties, altruism doesoccur in both humans and other animalspecies, even if it is sometimes hard tostudy quantitatively. Although altruismwas once thought to be one of those behavioral traits, like tool making andcomplex language, that separate humansfrom other species, we now know that weare not so different from other species.Altruism in humans, however, is clearlycomplicated by cultural evolution—it isno simple matter to disentangle the inter-action between biology and culture.

This anthropocentric view of altru-ism is clearly evident in the history ofaltruism as an idea, a history that LeeAlan Dugatkin brings to life in The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Searchfor the Origins of Goodness. In this de-lightful book, Dugatkin takes the readerfrom Darwin’s confusion over honeybeebehavior (and his fear that sterile workerbees raising siblings represented an ex-ception to natural selection) throughmore than 125 years of research, theo-retical thinking, and public argumentabout what altruism or goodness is, its re-lationship to kinship, and how it has beenstudied.

Dugatkin focuses his historical atten-tion on seven men who were, in his opin-ion, the most important biologists in thedevelopment of the current theory ofaltruism and of empirical tests of thattheory. Those biologists are Charles Dar-win, Petr Kropotkin, Thomas H. Huxley,J. B. S. Haldane, W. C. Allee, William D.Hamilton, and George Price. Anyonecompiling such a list might choose dif-ferent members, but there is no doubtthat these scientists played a central rolein our current understanding of altruism.Of course, those on the list did not workalone, and Dugatkin also discusses thecontributions, direct or indirect, made byat least eight other biologists (RonaldFisher, Sewall Wright, Richard Dawkins,John Maynard Smith, E. O. Wilson, SteveEmlen, Paul Sherman, and Hudson KernReeve), sometimes in such great detailthat I wasn’t always sure who was on thecentral list of seven to which the book’stitle refers.

The history of altruism was not asteady, steplike process. After Darwinhighlighted the apparent difficulty that


Fall Focus on Books

altruism in social insects presented for histheory of natural selection as an agent ofevolutionary change, biologists did notimmediately begin thinking about ageneral theory of altruism (or, for thatmatter, evolution). That developmentwould wait more than 75 years. Follow-ing Darwin, Kropotkin and Huxleywaged academic battles over whetheraltruistic acts were dependent on therelatedness of individuals. The answer,of course, is both yes and no, dependingon the ecological and behavioral cir-cumstances.

A general theory of altruism wouldnot surface until the early 1960s, when BillHamilton published what has becomeknown as “Hamilton’s rule”—that is, al-truism (or helping or aid-givingbehavior) can evolve whenever the ben-efits of the act devalued (multiplied) bythe coefficient of relatedness between theindividuals exceeds the cost of the act. Thesimplicity of the final theory belies theunderlying complex mathematics thatled to it, as well as the long history ofthinking about these ideas. Although theimpacts of Hamilton’s theory were notimmediate, they were dramatic. Oncethe model was widely understood, ithad impacts well beyond considerationsof altruism. It led at least in part, if notdirectly, to a gene perspective of evolu-tion, the theory of kin selection, the foun-dation for much of the emerging fieldof sociobiology, and sex ratio theory; italso led to the development of game the-ory and the notion of evolutionary sta-ble strategies. In other words, it changedthe way people thought about social be-havior specifically, as well as about evo-lution generally.

As fascinating as the intellectual de-velopment of altruism theory is, the per-sonal, human side of the development isequally interesting. As I read the histor-ical account, I thought that Dugatkinhad done for social behavior what JamesWatson did for the discovery of the struc-ture of DNA with The Double Helix.Scientists whom most people know sim-ply as the authors of citations in a pub-lication are brought to life in this book,and their interactions, collaborations,and sometimes ill feelings toward oneanother make for an intriguing story.

Although I think that Bill Hamilton isclearly the central figure in the history ofaltruism as an evolutionary concept, asDugatkin portrays him, all of the biolo-gists discussed in this book made valuablecontributions, and Dugatkin does an ex-cellent job of putting everyone’s histori-cal and current roles in perspective.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading thisbook, and I think anyone with an inter-est in animal behavior will find it valu-able, but I did find myself wishing fromtime to time that the author had includedmore information about some topics.Specifically, I think a longer discussionis warranted on the semantic issues con-cerning altruistic as opposed to cooper-ative behavior. I would also have enjoyedmore discussion of the interaction be-tween culture and biology in shapingaltruism in humans. Given the focus atthe end of the book on presenting theresults of specific research projects, itwould have been helpful to see a discus-sion of the practical difficulties of testingthe underlying theory, the simplicity ofHamilton’s ideas notwithstanding. Last,I think the book ended on a flat note, withno discussion of where the study of al-truism is headed. Surely not everythingregarding altruism has been solved; in-deed, some people still argue aboutwhether it occurs at all. Although thanksto this book we can better understand thehistory of the ideas, some predictions oreven speculations about future workwould have allowed the author to endon an altruistic note.

STEPHEN PRUETT-JONESStephen Pruett-Jones (e-mail:

[email protected])is an associate professor in the

Department of Ecology and Evolutionat the University of Chicago.


FEELING THE HEAT

Birds and Climate Change. Anders P.Møller, Wolfgang Fiedler, and PeterBerthold, eds. Elsevier, Burlington, MA,2006. 276 pp., illus. $49.95 (ISBN9780123736147 paper).

With the launch this year of thelatest reports by the Intergovern-

mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)and the growing public awareness of thevery real impacts that climate change isalready having on the natural world, Birdsand Climate Change is a timely, useful,readable book.

The IPCC says that global warming is“unequivocal,” and that it is “verylikely”—that is, there is a 90 percentlikelihood—that humans are the majordrivers of this climate change. Birds areperhaps the best-studied taxa in ecologybecause they are diurnal, use many ofthe same senses as humans, are ubiqui-tous, and are relatively easy to observe.Asa result, there are many long-term datasets on a wide range of different aspectsof bird ecology that are waiting to be ex-plored with respect to climate change.

This book brings together many ofthe key practitioners in this field to pro-vide a good overview of the current un-derstanding of birds and climate change.Also, like all good books, Birds and Cli-mate Change highlights much of what isnot known, thus constituting a usefulsource for people looking for importantquestions to answer.

The book is a collection of 11 chapterson a variety of topics, including phenol-ogy (the study of the timing of naturalevents), breeding performance, evolu-tionary processes, population dynamics,and community structure. AlthoughBirds and Climate Change was based ona workshop held in 2003, it is still a keyreference today. The authors undertookmeta-analyses and reviews that have notbeen published before, and extensive ref-erence lists lead the reader to the originaltexts. (Unfortunately, however, the pub-lisher provides only the authors and jour-nal references, not the titles of thepertinent articles.)

The first chapter is a particularly goodreview of studies of the arrival and de-partures of migrant birds on their breed-ing grounds. Lehikoinen, Sparks, andZalakevicius synthesize the results frommore than a thousand time series to showthat species are arriving on theirbreeding grounds earlier than before,and that many are departing later. Itappears that long-distance migrants arenot advancing their arrivals as much asspecies that fly shorter distances tomigrate, and a later chapter, by Visser,Both, and Lambrechts, describes howthis could affect breeding performanceand population status. For example, long-distance migrants such as pied flycatch-ers (Ficedula hypoleuca), which time theirmigration from Africa on the basis ofphotoperiodic or other endogenous cuesunrelated to temperature, are becomingout of synchrony with conditions at thebreeding grounds. Thus, they return totheir breeding grounds too late, whenthe caterpillars they feed to their youngare no longer abundant. Populations thatare unable to advance their arrival dateare experiencing population declines.The authors then discuss how birds maycope with climate change through mod-ifications of individual bird behavior, orby genetic adaptation and evolution.

Two interesting chapters follow, one byCoppack and Pulido on the photo-periodic response and adaptability oflife cycles, and the other by Pulido andBerthold on microevolutionary responsesto climate change. In bird life cycles,photoperiods (i.e., light–dark regimes)are often very important in determiningwhen birds come into breeding condi-tion, when they moult, and when theymigrate. These responses can vary ac-cording to latitude, because, for example,the lengthening of days in spring happensat a faster rate at higher latitudes. Popu-lations appear to be adapted to thesedifferences. If species shift their breedingrange northward in response to climatewarming, however, the photoperiodicresponses of the species, in determiningwhen they become physiologically readyfor breeding, might be inappropriate atthe higher latitudes, leading to mistiming.Studies of adaptation and evolution arestill rare, but a small number do show

that species can exhibit individual plas-ticity through nongenetic adaptation,and that rapid evolutionary changethrough natural selection is possible.Further research is urgently needed inthis area, as it is essential for under-standing whether and how wildlife canadapt to climate change.

Another series of chapters in Birds and Climate Change looks at populationprocesses. Dunn reviews an extensivebody of work on egg-laying dates andbreeding performance. Unsurprisingly,many studies show that birds are tendingto lay earlier in response to climatewarming, but the impacts on breedingperformance are mixed. Some birdsapparently benefit through larger clutchsizes and fledging success, but othersexperience detrimental effects resultingfrom changes in rainfall patterns orfrom mistimed reproduction.

Dunn also discusses why some 40 per-cent of species show no apparent re-sponse to changing temperatures; forexample, larger-bodied species appearto be less affected, possibly because theirthermoregulatory costs are lower thanthose of smaller-bodied species in tem-perate climates. Also, generalist species,that is, those with a broader range ofdiet, may be less constrained by theimpacts of ambient temperature on onecomponent of their food supply thanspecialist feeders that rely on a smallrange of prey types. Clearly, there areavenues for further research that are wait-ing to be explored.

Global warming has produced someinteresting geographical patterns ofclimate change that are not uniformaround the world, and these are reflectedin the distributional patterns of birds,as discussed by Böhning-Gaese andLemoine. They cite a number of studiesfrom around the world showing thatspecies distributions are shifting north-ward and into higher altitudes, but theyalso note that research in this area is scantcompared with research on taxa such asplants and butterflies. There is even lessinformation on bird communities andecosystems. As species move at differentrates, whole new communities will form,potentially leading to instability. Evenwithin species, certain complexities have

to be considered. For example, Saether,Sutherland, and Engen discuss how thepopulation dynamics of a species mightbe affected. Several key questions emerge:Will the climate response be densitydependent or density independent? Willclimate changes operate primarilythrough productivity or through sur-vival? Will climate change affect notonly average values but also variability?Almost no population modeling hasbeen done in this area yet.

A particularly useful feature of Birdsand Climate Change is that most chaptersinclude discussions of methodologicalissues and the sorts of problems thatneed to be considered and avoided. Theavailability of large historical data sets—gathered over large geographical areasand for many years by volunteer bird-watchers—has been essential in manystudies of birds. Such data sets are equallyvaluable in the climate-change world, asFiedler, Bairlein, and Köppen demon-strate in their analysis of data fromEuropean bird banding (affixing light-weight, coded, easily identifiable bandsto birds’ legs) to explore how migratorydistances might be changing in responseto global warming—a fascinating tasteof what might be possible. In NorthAmerica, data sets put together by orga-nizations such as the Cornell Lab ofOrnithology, Bird Studies Canada, andthe California-based Institute of BirdPopulations are likely to be the basis ofmany bird studies in that part of theworld. I hope that this book inspires suchstudies on every continent, and espe-cially from areas in the lower latitudes,because conditions and impacts are likelyto be quite different in the tropics thanthey are in northern latitudes.

HUMPHREY Q. P. CRICKHumphrey Q. P. Crick (e-mail:

[email protected]) is a seniorecologist and head of the Demography

Unit at the British Trust for Ornithologyin Thetford, England; he has a special

research interest in climate change.



Fall Focus on Books

THE BROAD VIEW OFLANDSCAPES

Ecosystem Function in HeterogeneousLandscapes. Gary M. Lovett, Clive G.Jones, Monica G. Turner, and KathleenC. Weathers, eds. Springer, New York,2005. 489 pp., illus. $59.95 (ISBN9780387240909 paper).

Ecosystem Function in HeterogeneousLandscapes is the product of a Cary

conference held at the Institute forEcosystem Studies in Millbrook, NewYork, in 2003. Like other edited confer-ence volumes (Likens 1989, Canham et al.2003, etc.), it is long (489 pages) andbroadly based, with the topics of its 24chapters ranging from the theoreticaland the synthetic to applications such asconservation planning.

I have to admit a certain prejudiceagainst conference volumes of this sort,which tend to be lengthy and cannotavoid disparities of style and focus. Oneobvious manifestation of this disparityis the great variation in the number, qual-ity, sophistication, and usefulness of thefigures used to illustrate the differentchapters. My preference would be a “dis-tilled wisdom” version with half thelength of this volume and a synoptic ap-proach that eliminates both repetitionand contradiction.

Although the jacket blurb hints at agroundbreaking synthesis, the book ismore a compilation of current thinkingand the present state of research in anumber of related fields, includingecosystem science, landscape ecology,and conservation biology. The format,however, makes it difficult to comparechapter material, and it is not easy to fol-low the thread of a single conceptthroughout the volume. A flowchart ormap of the relationships among the con-tents of the chapters might have been auseful addition.

That said, I commend the editors fortheir introductions to each section, whichidentify the common themes in all of thecontributions. This is essential, given thebroad range of ecosystems under dis-cussion, from freshwater and oceans to

cities and forests. The major theoreticalcomponent, which the editors empha-size, is the significance of the configura-tion of landscape elements, not merelythe composition of the landscape, for thefunctioning of these heterogeneous sys-tems: the flows of ecological processesare facilitated or inhibited by the land-scape’s configuration.

Although it is useful to have much ofthe current thinking on this topic col-lected in a single volume, I was left withthe impression that a lot more thinkingstill needs to be done. Perhaps the mostimportant challenge for this area of studyis to develop conceptual and analyticframeworks that take into account thecommon elements of the broad range ofsystems studied. The spatial and tempo-ral heterogeneity of ecological systems“nearly always affects processes and func-tions in ecosystems, and in diverse ways”(p. 414). The strength of this book is thatit presents this diversity comprehensively,but diversity is also the book’s weakness,inasmuch as general principles that unifythe “diverse ways” are not presented.

Also missing from this collection arethe theoretical tools needed to facilitatethe research, even though these are avail-able elsewhere. The concept of networksis mentioned in more than one chapter(pp. 39–41, 455–456), but it is never fullydeveloped, and its parent concept, graphtheory, does not even appear in the index.

This is a simple yet powerful body oftheory in which spatial units are depictedas points (or nodes or vertices), with theconnections and relationships betweenthem depicted as lines (or arcs or edges);the points may have quantitative or qual-itative characteristics, and the lines mayhave directions and other properties,such as rates. Graph theory has alreadybeen used in a variety of ecologicalstudies (Dale 1977, Ricotta et al. 2000,Urban and Keitt 2001, Proulx et al. 2005,among many), and the subjects coveredin this book would have benefited fromits application. Discussions sometimestouch on the ideas of graph theory (forexample, in reference to “point”processesat particular locations, with flows ofenergy, materials, and information be-tween them [figure 2.1]), but it could beargued that the raster-based conceptual

model depicted in figures 2.1, 2.2 and2.3 will overly constrain developments inthis area. A more open and flexible con-ceptual model will be important to thestudy of the function of heterogeneouslandscapes, allowing all of the effects ofthe mechanisms of configuration, notjust compositional differences, to be fullyrealized.

The book’s contributors are to be cred-ited for taking on such a difficult andcritically important topic. Nonetheless,the current state of research in this fieldleaves room for considerably more work.I look forward to future developments inthis area and to more distillation of thecollective wisdom. The effects of spatialheterogeneity cannot be ignored, andthey must be accounted for in waysappropriate to the system under study.

MARK R. T. DALEMark R. T. Dale (e-mail:

[email protected]) is a professor ofbiological sciences at the University

of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.His current research interests includemethods for detecting and analyzing

spatial relationships of plants inpopulations and communities.

References citedCanham CD, Cole JJ, Lauenroth WK, eds. 2003.

Models in Ecosystem Science. Princeton (NJ):

Princeton University Press.

Dale MRT. 1977. Graph theoretical analysis of the

phytosociological structure of plant commu-

nities: The theoretical basis. Vegetatio 34:

137–154.

Likens GE, ed. 1989. Long-term Studies in Ecology:

Approaches and Alternatives. New York:

Springer.

Proulx SR, Promislow DEL, Phillips PC. 2005. Net-

work thinking in ecology and evolution. Trends

in Ecology and Evolution 20: 345–353.

Ricotta C, Stanisci A, Avena GC, Blasi C. 2000.

Quantifying the network connectivity of land-

scape mosaics: A graph-theoretical approach.

Community Ecology 1: 89–94.

Urban DL, Keitt TH. 2001. Landscape connectivity:

A graph theoretic perspective. Ecology 82:

1205–1218.



Fall Focus on Books


Fall Focus on Books

PAYING GOULD TRIBUTE

Macroevolution: Diversity, Disparity,Contingency: Essays in Honor ofStephen Jay Gould. Elisabeth S. Vrbaand Niles Eldredge, eds. PaleontologicalSociety, Lawrence, KS, 2005. 210 pp.,illus. $25.00 (ISBN 9781891276491paper).

Stephen J. Gould was probably themost iconic figure in late 20th-

century evolutionary biology. Althoughhe is often associated with paleobiology(an association he courted), his personalresearch was in population biology andthe evolution of gastropods. He had abrilliant literary style and wrote numer-ous popular books. It is probably thosebooks, and the magazine articles fromwhich they were derived, that introducedmost of us to his ideas. Many of theseideas seemed revolutionary, but a carefulreading of Gould’s published worksshows that he rarely took them to theirmost radical extremes. Now two ofGould’s closest collaborators and friends,Elisabeth Vrba and Niles Eldredge, havegathered together a set of 14 papers thatprovide more detailed scientific insightinto Gould’s ideas and the directions inwhich they carry evolutionary thought.

If there is a central theme runningthrough Macroevolution: Diversity, Dis-parity, Contingency, it is probably exap-tation, the idea that evolution may recruitpreexisting adaptations for new and un-expected processes. It is pursued at thelevel of the genome by Jürgen Brosius,whose article “Disparity, Adaptation,Exaptation, Bookkeeping, and Contin-gency at the Genome Level” introducesthe reader to the transformation of anoriginally RNA-dominated world intoone with DNA-driven evolution. Heclaims that this was accomplishedthrough a process of retroposition (en-zymatic conversion of RNA into DNA),which created what Brosius terms“retronuons.”He claims that retronuonsproduce potential exaptations and may bemajor agents of genomic change.

Kenneth J. McNamara and MichaelL. McKinney explore another possible

contributor to macroevolution: hetero-chrony. They even make a stab at anexplanation for the difference between thehands of birds, which have digits II, III,and IV, and those of their putativedinosaurian ancestors, which clearlyretain digits I, II, and III. Judging fromMcNamara and McKinney’s contribu-tion, differential development mightmake morphology so plastic that mor-phological homology would be difficultto establish.

My favorite contribution to the dis-cussion on exaptation, however, is by afamous invertebrate paleontologist,AdolfSeilacher, who wrote a delightful littleessay on exaptation and the evolution ofbarnacles that infest the skin of whales.He originally intended to write the paperjointly with Gould, but it was put off toolong, and Seilacher’s regret is expressed in

a poignant letter to Steve’s ghost at theend of the article. Another essay borrowspart of its title (“Tempo and Mode”)from George Gaylord Simpson, thoughit’s doubtful that Simpson would reallyhave approved of the approach takenby Kevin J. Peterson, Mark A. McPeek,and David A. D. Evans to external andinternal evolutionary “triggers.” In muchthe same vein, Hugh Patterson looks atdirectional selection in “The CompetitiveDarwin,”and Michael J. Donoghue takesup macroevolutionary processes in theevolution of plants. The latter author hassome very interesting insights into therole of convergence in understandingevolutionary theory.

Gould’s book Wonderful Life is reprisedin an article by Derek Briggs and RichardFortey, “Wonderful Strife,” which alsofeatures the Cambrian diversity explo-sion. In this article they correct some ofthe mistakes made in Gould’s book anddiscuss the real meaning of the Cam-brian community revolution. The article

by Bruce Lieberman and Vrba on speciesselection was another high point for me,as the authors delve into the somewhatcontroversial fields of macroevolutionand group selection. Lieberman contin-ues with Eldredge and a host of otherauthors in a related article, “The Dy-namics of Evolutionary Stasis.” Vrbaaddresses mass turnover and hetero-chronic events, while David Jablonskilooks at mass extinction and macro-evolution. It seems to me that the term“macroevolution” is a concept thatdoesn’t translate well, and it varies inmeaning from one author to another.

Lynn Margulis, Michael Dolan, andJessica Whiteside explore the origin ofthe cellular nucleus in terms of Darwin-ian “imperfections and oddities.” DanielMcShea looks at the evolution of com-plexity without natural selection. Stephen

Hubbell discusses Gould’s influentialneutral theory of biodiversity. And inMcShea’s article, a kind of internal evo-lutionary drive, “the internal varianceprinciple,” is proposed.

Gould’s mind ran the full spectrum ofevolutionary theory, and this volumemanages to address many of the subjectsthat we identify with him. It is worthnoting that, while Gould flirted withmany radical ideas—including saltatoryevolution, the neutral theory of evolution,group selection, and the reversal of thebiodiversity increase expectation—a care-ful reading of his published works re-veals him to be, in the end, a little moreconservative and closer to Darwin orSimpson than are the articles in this book.This is perhaps the greatest strength of thevolume. It allows us to get an insight intowhat many suggestions and inferencesfound in Gould’s work might look like ifextended to their full potential. I con-gratulate the editors on their choice ofauthors and can only speculate that if

It is worth noting that, while Gould flirted with many radical ideas—

including saltatory evolution, the neutral theory of evolution, group selection,

and the reversal of the biodiversity increase expectation—a careful reading of

his published works reveals him to be, in the end, a little more conservative and closer

to Darwin or Simpson than are the articles in this book.


Fall Focus on Books

Gould’s spirit should choose to answerSeilacher’s letter, it would be to say, Welldone!

LARRY D. MARTINLarry D. Martin (e-mail:

[email protected]) is a professor ofecology and evolutionary biology, and

senior curator of vertebrate paleontology,at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.


WICKED PROBLEMS

Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adap-tive Ecosystem Management. Bryan G.Norton. University of Chicago Press,Chicago, 2005. 608 pp., illus. $37.50(ISBN 9780226595214 paper).

Sustainability: A Philosophy of Adap-tive Ecosystem Management is

simultaneously brilliant and highlyfrustrating. Bryan G. Norton brilliantlyintegrates insights from economics,environmental ethics, pragmatist philo-sophy, postnormal science, discourseethics, decision theory, valuation, andmore to help readers understand theproblem of sustainability and to proposean adaptive management process toaddress the problem. But Norton coucheshis arguments in highly academic prose,which is bound to frustrate the nonspe-cialist reader, and is in direct contradic-tion to his assertion that to addressthe problem of sustainability, we mustdiscuss it in ordinary language thatanyone can understand. Ultimately, thisis a philosophy text, when what theworld really needs is a functional guideto adaptive management.

Norton recognizes that sustainabilityis a wicked problem: It is difficult to for-mulate, the way we formulate it influ-ences how we try to solve it, differentstakeholders understand and formulate itin different ways, the problem changesover time, and it can never be defini-tively solved. Facts are uncertain, decisionsare urgent, stakes are high, and values

matter. A multiplicity of values and goalsmeans that sustainability must be judgedby multiple criteria. Though most sci-entists strive to separate facts from values,this approach fails for wicked problems.How can we know what is important,what facts to gather, if we do not integrateour discussion of facts and values, as isdone in everyday discourse and in policydiscussions? We must accept that there isno one clear “solution” to sustainabil-ity—it is instead a process in which stepsforward must be judged as better orworse, not right or wrong.

Unfortunately, most formulations ofthe sustainability problem are driven byideology. For example, environmentalethicists focus on the intrinsic value ofnature, and welfare economists on theinstrumental value of nature in sustain-ing human welfare over time. Both dis-ciplines bring nonnegotiable assumptionsand values to the table, couched in aca-demic jargon. Both attempt to evaluatea complex array of values by a singlecriterion and frame the problem in a waythat predetermines solution paths. Theseassumptions and values conflict, so nocooperation emerges and no progress ismade toward sustainability.

To address these problems, Nortonoffers a philosophy of adaptive manage-ment that builds from three basic prin-ciples. First is experimentalism: allknowledge, both facts and values, must betested by experience, ruling out non-negotiable ideological assertions. Secondis multiscalar analysis: sustainabilityconcerns changes that occur across dif-ferent spatial and temporal scales, withdifferent value systems emerging atthese different scales. In particular,Norton distinguishes between (a) com-munal values relevant to intergenera-tional bequests and species survival and(b) economic values appropriate forshort-term individual impacts. Third isplace sensitivity: the starting point foradaptive management must be locallygrounded values about what is importantto sustain for a given community. Thisemphasis on place sensitivity keepsNorton’s discussion fairly abstract, as onecannot specify, independent of a specificcommunity, precisely what needs to besustained.

Norton defines sustainability as “arelationship between generations suchthat the earlier generations fulfill theirindividual wants and needs so as not todestroy, or close off, important andvalued options for future generations”(p. 363). Preserving valued options de-mands that we leave concrete physicalresources for future generations (i.e.,strong sustainability), which goes beyondthe utilitarian requirement of simply en-suring a nondiminishing level of welfare(weak sustainability). This requires a hybrid approach to sustainability, inwhich the decision of what resources toleave takes precedence over economicreasoning and analysis. As ecologicaleconomists (wrongly accused by Nortonof belonging to the weak-sustainabilitycamp) put it, a sustainable scale must beprice determining, not price determined(Daly and Farley 2004).

Adaptive management is the activeprocess required to achieve this goal. Theneed to assess multiple criteria and tointegrate facts and values demands theparticipation of multiple disciplines alongwith representative community stake-holders. Everyone from a given commu-nity who is interested in sustainabilitymust come to the table to discuss preciselywhat that community needs to sustain,abandoning beforehand all a priori as-sumptions and bringing with them acommitment to experimentalism. A ma-jor challenge is to overcome the barriersto communication, achieved by aban-doning academic jargon (facilitated bydiscussing real problems) and commu-nicating in plain language, in which thereare no artificial distinctions between factsand values. Even if participants fail toagree on ultimate goals, they can agree oninitial actions that contribute to a varietyof different goals. Action tests both factsand values and provides new informa-tion. Reflection on the outcomes of actionthrough continued debate leads to newactions. It is this iterative process ofaction and reflection, empirical testingof both facts and values in a process ofsocial learning, that constitutes adaptivemanagement.

I strongly agree with Norton’s analysisof the problem and the democratic adap-tive management process he proposes,


Fall Focus on Books

but some serious issues remain unre-solved. First, his proposed process willbe hard to implement, and onceimplemented may move too slowly toaddress problems that demand urgentaction, such as global climate change andbiodiversity collapse. Second, the processrelies on social learning, which in turndepends on a willingness to empiricallytest all convictions. Will this approachwork in societies (such as the UnitedStates) where faith-based beliefs in reli-gion, markets, and economic growthoften trump empirical evidence? Nor-ton himself seems to assume that eco-nomic growth enhances individualwelfare, ignoring empirical evidencethat in wealthier countries, at least,growth fails to improve health, educa-tion, or subjective well-being (Costanzaet al. 2007).

Perhaps more serious, Norton’s prin-ciple of multiscalar analysis appears toconflict with his principle of place sensi-tivity. Efforts to sustain one hierarchicalscale for too long may suppress therenewal cycle found in nature, and thusthreaten the sustainability of systems athigher scales. If this is true, then effortsto sustain local communities for too longmay threaten the larger system, the globalcommunity (Voinov and Farley 2007).If sustainability at higher hierarchicalscales does not automatically arise fromsustainability at lower scales, then Nor-ton’s philosophy may be dangerouslyincomplete.

My major criticism of Sustainability,however, lies in the highly academiclanguage. I make my point using Norton’sown words:“Building on Peirce’s ideas ofa science of semiotics, and incorporatingbreakthroughs by positivist and otherphilosophers of language, this group hasoffered a strong emphasis on public dis-course, embedding this discourse insocial praxis by focusing attention onthe preconditions of intelligible languageand discourse” (p. 279). Intelligible lan-guage is a precondition of public dis-course, and Norton’s frequent failure tomeet this standard makes Sustainabilitymuch less accessible and less rewardingthan it could have been. Perhaps the realculprit here is the perversity of the aca-demic system, which forces scholars to

write in disciplinary jargon if they wishto be taken seriously. I wish that Nor-ton, who is already a highly respectedscholar, had shown the courage of hisconvictions and written this book inordinary language. Had he done so, thisreview would have given a wholeheartedrecommendation for an excellent book.

JOSHUA FARLEYJoshua Farley (e-mail:

[email protected]) is an assistantprofessor in the Department of

Community Development and AppliedEconomics at the University of Vermont,

Burlington, VT 05405.

References citedCostanza R, et al. 2007. Quality of life: An approach

integrating opportunities, human needs, and

subjective well-being. Ecological Economics

61: 267–276.

Daly HE, Farley J. 2004. Ecological Economics:

Principles and Applications.Washington (DC):

Island Press.

Voinov A, Farley J. 2007. Reconciling sustainability,

systems theory and discounting. Ecological

Economics 63: 104–113.


NEW TITLES

Acid Rain—Deposition to Recovery.Peter Brimblecombe, Hiroshi Hara,Daniel Houle, and Martin Novak, eds.Springer, New York, 2007.430 pp., illus. $169.00 (ISBN9781402058844 cloth).

Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction.David A. Liberles, ed. OxfordUniversity Press, New York, 2007.272 pp., illus. $100.00 (ISBN9780199299188 cloth).

Bacterial Pathogenomics. Mark J.Pallen, Karen E. Nelson, and Gail M.Preston, eds. ASM Press, Washington,DC, 2007. 472 pp., illus. $139.95(ISBN 9781555814519 cloth).

Biodiversity under Threat. R. E. Hesterand R. M. Harrison, eds. Springer,New York, 2007. 214 pp., illus. $99.99(ISBN 9780854042517 cloth).

Biological Emergences: Evolution byNatural Experiment. Robert G. B.Reid. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA,2007. 517 pp. $38.00 (ISBN9780262182577 cloth).

Bluegills: Biology and Behavior. StephenSpotte. American Fisheries Society,Bethesda, MD, 2007. 214 pp., illus.$35.00 (ISBN 9781888569933 paper).

Climate Change: Biological and HumanAspects. Jonathan Cowie. CambridgeUniversity Press, New York, 2007.504 pp., illus. $52.00 (ISBN9780521696197 paper).

Dynamics of Cancer: Incidence, Inher-itance, and Evolution. Steven A.Frank. Princeton University Press,Princeton, NJ, 2007. 398 pp., illus.$39.50 (ISBN 9780691133669 paper).

The Ecology and Evolution of Ant–PlantInteractions. Victor Rico-Gray andPaulo S. Oliveira. University ofChicago Press, Chicago, 2007.352 pp., illus. $28.00 (ISBN9780226713489 paper).

Evolution. Nicholas H. Barton, Derek E.G. Briggs, Jonathan A. Eisen, David B.Goldstein, and Nipam H. Patel. ColdSpring Harbor Laboratory Press,Woodbury, NY, 2007. 833 pp., illus.$100.00 (ISBN 9780879696849 cloth).

Exploitation of Fungi. Geoff D. Rob-son, Pieter van West, and Geoff M.Gadd. Cambridge University Press,New York, 2007. 368 pp., illus. $150.00(ISBN 9780521859356 cloth).

Florida’s Unexpected Wildlife: ExoticSpecies, Living Fossils, and Mythi-cal Beasts in the Sunshine State.Michael Newton. University Press ofFlorida, Gainesville, 2007. 208 pp.,illus. $21.00 (ISBN 9780813031569paper).


Fall Focus on Books

Forest Ecology and Conservation: AHandbook of Techniques. Adrian C.Newton. Oxford University Press, NewYork, 2007. 472 pp., illus. $54.95 (ISBN9780198567455 paper).

From Embryology to Evo-Devo: A His-tory of Developmental Evolution.Manfred D. Laubichler and JaneMaienschein, eds. MIT Press, Cam-bridge, MA, 2007. 569 pp., illus. $55.00(ISBN 9780262122832 cloth).

Genomic Signal Processing. Ilya Shmule-vich and Edward R.Dougherty.Prince-ton University Press, Princeton, NJ,2007. 312 pp., illus. $60.00 (ISBN9780691117621 cloth).

Gorilla Society: Conflict, Compromise,and Cooperation between the Sexes.Alexander H. Harcourt and Kelly J.Stewart. University of Chicago Press,Chicago, 2007. 480 pp., illus. $30.00(ISBN 9780226316031 paper).

Herpetological History of the Zoo andAquarium World. James B. Murphy.Krieger, Melbourne, FL, 2007. 344 pp.,illus. $79.50 (ISBN 9781575242859cloth).

The Mammals of Costa Rica: A NaturalHistory and Field Guide. Mark Wain-wright. Cornell University Press,Ithaca, NY, 2007. 488 pp., illus. $29.95(ISBN 9780801473753 paper).

Mammals of Madagascar: A CompleteGuide. Nick Garbutt. Yale UniversityPress, New Haven, CT, 2007. 304 pp.,illus. $39.95 (ISBN 9780300125504paper).

The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: ArchieCarr and the Origins of Conserva-tion Biology. Frederick Rowe Davis.Oxford University Press, New York,2007. 336 pp., illus. $29.95 (ISBN97780195310771 cloth).

The Microbiology Bench Companion.J. Michael Miller. ASM Press, Wash-ington, DC, 2007. 128 pp., illus. $39.95(ISBN 9781555814021 paper).

Millipedes and Moon Tigers: Scienceand Policy in an Age of Extinction.Steve Nash. University of VirginiaPress, Charlottesville, 2007. 184 pp.$22.95 (ISBN 9780813926230 cloth).

Multifunctional Agriculture: A Transi-tion Theory Perspective. Geoff A.Wilson. CABI, Cambridge, MA,2007. 384 pp., illus. $130.00 (ISBN9781845932565 cloth).

Penguins of the World. Wayne Lynch.Firefly Books, Buffalo, NY, 2007.176 pp., illus. $24.95 (ISBN9781554072743 paper).

Plant Secondary Metabolites. HarinderP. S. Makkar, P. Siddhuraju, and KlausBecker. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ,2007. 144 pp., illus. $99.00 (ISBN9781588299932 cloth).

Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems:A Troubled Sense of Immensity.Robert W. Adler. Island Press, Wash-ington, DC, 2007. 340 pp., illus. $35.00(ISBN 9781597260572 paper).

Rodent Societies: An Ecological andEvolutionary Perspective. Jerry O.Wolff and Paul W. Sherman, eds.University of Chicago Press, Chicago,2007. 632 pp., illus. $49.00 (ISBN9780226905372 paper).

Sex, Size, and Gender Roles: Evolution-ary Studies of Sexual Size Dimor-phism. Daphne J. Fairbairn, Wolf U.Blanckenhorn, and Tamás Székely,eds. Oxford University Press, NewYork, 2007. 280 pp., illus. $110.00(ISBN 9780199208784 cloth).

Status, Distribution, and Conservationof Native Freshwater Fishes of West-ern North America. Mark J. Brouderand Julie A. Scheurer, eds. AmericanFisheries Society, Bethesda, MD, 2007.207 pp., illus. $69.00 (ISBN9781888569896 paper).

Steward’s Fork: A Sustainable Futurefor the Klamath Mountains. James K.Agee. University of California Press,Berkeley, 2007. 306 pp., illus. $39.95(ISBN 9780520251250 cloth).

Superantigens: Molecular Basis forTheir Role in Human Diseases.Malak Kotb and John D. Fraser, eds.ASM Press, Washington, DC, 2007.292 pp., illus. $129.95 (ISBN9781555814243 cloth).

Sustainability Indicators: A ScientificAssessment. Tomás Hák, BedrichMoldan, and Arthur Lyon Dahl.Island Press, Washington, DC, 2007.448 pp., illus. $49.95 (ISBN9781597261319 paper).

Viral Transport in Plants. ElisabethWaigmann and Manfred Heinlein,eds. Springer, New York, 2007.200 pp., illus. $109.00 (ISBN9783540698425 cloth).

Wildlife Damage Control. Jim Hone.CABI, Cambridge, MA, 2007. 180 pp.,illus. $75.00 (ISBN 9781845932459cloth).

Wild Orchids of the Northeast: NewEngland, New York, Pennsylvania,and New Jersey. Paul Martin Brown.University Press of Florida, Gaines-ville, 2007. 392 pp., illus. $29.95 (ISBN9780813030340 paper).

The Winds of Change: Climate,Weather,and the Destruction of Civilizations.Eugene Linden. Simon and Schuster,New York, 2007. 336 pp., illus. $15.00(ISBN 9780684863535 paper).

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