Overview

What species occur where, and why, and why some places harbor more species than others are basic questions for ecologists. Some species simply live in different places: fish live underwater, birds do not. Adaptations follow: most fish have gills; birds have lungs. But as Patterns in Nature reveals, not all patterns are so trivial. Bringing up to date a critical debate in the field of community ecology between Jared Diamond and colleagues Daniel Simberloff and Edward F. Connor-in which Connor and Simberloff claimed to have demonstrated that island communities did not differ from random expectations-this book undertakes the identification and interpretation of nature's large-scale patterns of species co-occurrence to offer insight into how nature truly works. Travel along any gradient-up a mountain, from forest into desert, from a north-facing slope to a south-facing one, from low tide to high tide on a shoreline, from Arctic tundra to tropical rain forests-and the species change. What explains the patterns of these distributions? Some patterns might be as random as a coin toss. But as with a coin toss, can ecologists differentiate associations caused by a multiplicity of complex, idiosyncratic factors from those structured by some unidentified but simple mechanisms? Can simple mechanisms that structure communities be inferred from observations of which species associations naturally occur? While the answers to these questions are not yet entirely clear, Patterns in Nature forces us to reexamine assumptions about species distribution patterns and will be of vital importance to ecologists and conservationists alike.

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A valuable and stimulating review of decades of work. The focus on intellectual content is refreshing, because there seems little to be gained from rekindling what the authors term an academic war, and, overall, I feel that the major contributions arising from both entrenched positions are well recognized here (the occasional pointed aside notwithstanding). There is a clear moral too, that increased openness can help us to avoid future wars. . . . Was it worth these decades of hostility? Are we now in a much stronger position to robustly predict how ecological communities will respond to an uncertain future? I am not sure. But, I am convinced by the authors statement that doing so will require increased cooperation between those able to identify, analyze, and explain repeated patterns in nature. --Thomas J. Webb, University of Sheffield Trends in Ecology & Evolution

James G. Sanderson is a TEAM research scientist at Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. He is coauthor of Small Wild Cats: The Animal Answer Guide. Stuart L. Pimm is the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. He is the author of The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth, The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, and Food Webs, the latter two published by the University of Chicago Press.

A very interesting book on large-scale species distribution patterns, this is not a repeat of what has been published voluminously on the debate between Diamond and Connor/Simberloff, but a well-written, fairly balanced, and updated account of the positive contributions to science from both camps and the lessons that we all can learn from such heated debates. For those who are interested in island biogeography, for those who are enthused by laws in ecology, and for those who are intrigued by historical developments in community ecology and beyond, this is a fascinating read. And for those who want to learn useful techniques and algorithms in null model analysis, Patterns in Nature is an entertaining and valuable book. --Jianguo (Jingle) Wu, Arizona State University

Author Information

James G. Sanderson is a TEAM research scientist at Conservation International's Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. He is coauthor of Small Wild Cats: The Animal Answer Guide. Stuart L. Pimm is the Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University. He is the author of The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth, The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, and Food Webs, the latter two published by the University of Chicago Press.

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