246 FOLIA GEOBOTANICA El" PHYTOTAXONOMICA , 28, 1993 NELSON G. HAIRSTON, St. ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS: PURPOSE, DESIGN, AND EXECUTION Cambridge Studies in Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge etc., 1991, 370 pp. Price GBP 35.-, USD 54.50, ISBN 0-521-34692-4 This book grew out of the author's lecture notes. As it claims in the introduction "Its pUt-pose is to instruct r~chers in the good and poor points in experiments that have been carried out." The author used three criteria to selected the experiments he described - 1/to be representative of -,all levels of quality, in meeting the requirements of experimental design, 2/to cover interactions important to understanding 9 the operation of the community under investigation, 3/to include experiments of historical interest. The book consists of nine chapters following by references, name and subject indexes. The first three introductory chapters are of a general nature, the next five describe experiments in five distinct kinds of environment. The ninth is eonclusive. In all chapters we can find descriptions of many interesting experiments discussed at levels of different organisms - microbes, plants, animals. The emphasis is laid on competitive experiments. They are discussed from the point of view of quality of their experimental design; the technical problems of e, xpcrimcnts such as the proper laboratory temperature, humidity and light intensity arc not discussed here. Chapter 1 - Ecological problems and how they are approached - gives general ecological questions amenable to experimentation such as "What determines the abundance of species in nature?" or "How important are interactions between species?" It discusses possible ways of solving the problems, i.e. field observations, mathematicaI~ derived theory, and planned laboratory and field experiments. Chapter 2 - Minimal requirements of experimental design in ecology - is about the basic prerequisites of a good ecological experiment: initial condition postulations, good controls and the number of replications. The danger of pseudoreplication, unwanted effects of experiments and changes in controls is discussed. Chapter 3 - Trade-offs in ecological experimentation - diseu.~a~ the possibility of generalization of ecological experiments and the limitations of laboratory, field and semi-nataral experiments. Chapters 4 - 8 diseuss interactions among decomposers, plants, herbivores, granivores, predators, and insectivores in forests, terrestrial successional communities, arid envlronmcnts, fresh waters and marine environments. Density and food or nutrient dependence are also mentioned. Chapter 9 gives the condasions to be drawn from field experiments. The author concludes that each kind of environment should be considered separately, because there are few, ff any, specific statements about ecological processes that will be true across all environments. The book is an interesting guide from which all ccologias, students beginning their sdentitic careers just as their teachers, who will draw inspiration for their ecological experimentation. Vi~RAHADINCOVA

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Page 1: Nelson G. Hairston, Sr. Ecological experiments: purpose, design, and execution

246 FOLIA GEOBOTANICA El" PHYTOTAXONOMICA, 28, 1993

NELSON G. HAIRSTON, St.

ECOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS: PURPOSE, DESIGN, AND EXECUTION

Cambridge Studies in Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge etc., 1991, 370 pp. Price GBP 35.-, USD 54.50, ISBN 0-521-34692-4

This book grew out of the author's lecture notes. As it claims in the introduction " I ts pUt-pose is to instruct r ~ c h e r s in the good and poor points in experiments that have been carried out."

The author used three criteria to selected the experiments he described - 1 / to be representative of -,all levels of quality, in meeting the requirements of experimental design, 2 / t o cover interactions important to understanding

�9 the operation of the community under investigation, 3 / t o include experiments of historical interest. The book consists of nine chapters following by references, name and subject indexes. The first three

introductory chapters are of a general nature, the next five describe experiments in five distinct kinds of environment. The ninth is eonclusive. In all chapters we can find descriptions of many interesting experiments discussed at levels of different organisms - microbes, plants, animals. The emphasis is laid on competitive experiments. They are discussed from the point of view of quality of their experimental design; the technical problems of e, xpcrimcnts such as the proper laboratory temperature, humidity and light intensity arc not discussed here.

Chapter 1 - Ecological problems and how they are approached - gives general ecological questions amenable to experimentation such as "What determines the abundance of species in nature?" or "How important are interactions between species?" It discusses possible ways of solving the problems, i.e. field observations, mathematicaI~ derived theory, and planned laboratory and field experiments.

Chapter 2 - Minimal requirements of experimental design in ecology - is about the basic prerequisites of a good ecological experiment: initial condition postulations, good controls and the number of replications. The danger of pseudoreplication, unwanted effects of experiments and changes in controls is discussed.

Chapter 3 - Trade-offs in ecological experimentation - diseu.~a~ the possibility of generalization of ecological experiments and the limitations of laboratory, field and semi-nataral experiments.

Chapters 4 - 8 diseuss interactions among decomposers, plants, herbivores, granivores, predators, and insectivores in forests, terrestrial successional communities, arid envlronmcnts, fresh waters and marine environments. Density and food or nutrient dependence are also mentioned.

Chapter 9 gives the condasions to be drawn from field experiments. The author concludes that each kind of environment should be considered separately, because there are few, ff any, specific statements about ecological processes that will be true across all environments.

The book is an interesting guide from which all ccologias, students beginning their sdentitic careers just as their teachers, who will draw inspiration for their ecological experimentation.

Vi~RA HADINCOVA