Ecology and our endangered life-support systems

by Eugene P. Odum

This new book, by one of the world's most distinguished ecologists, provides a review of the holistic or "big picture" principles of ecology. It is a timely presentation of the basic ecological principles that must be learned to protect the environment that provides our physiological necessities. "Ecology and Our Endangered Life-Support Systems" stresses the point of view that ecosystem theory provides a common denominator for people and nature, and that "goods and services" of both people and nature are coupled and must be considered together. Without healthy life-support systems (such as atmosphere, forests, and oceans) to support and buffer human industrial urban and agricultural activites, there cannot be a healthy economy or a high quality of life. Dr. Odum has prepared this book with the general reader and the specialist in mind. All those involved in environmental matters, and seeking a review of major ecological principles, will broaden their expertise by reading this volume.

283 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Eugene Pleasants Odum was an American biologist at the University of Georgia known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He and his brother Howard T. Odum wrote the popular ecology textbook, Fundamentals of Ecology (1953).

Reviews

[John]

This high-school level textbook contains a nice conceptual overview of the key ideas in ecology. Most of the real content of the book is very general, applying to all ecosystems, starting in chapter two by explaining the basic idea of ecology and ecosystems, and then continuing with energy and material flows, population ecology and evolution, and succession and development. It then explains the major categories of ecosystems encountered in the world, grounding those differences in the similarities that have been established. It begins and ends on more interest in human policy, indicating the analogy between the Earth and a space shuttle as having life-support systems requiring maintenance and care. For a textbook, it is quite short, which I think reflects a nice economy and conciseness of presentation rather than skimping on the material.

I think this middle section is really quite nice, briefly summarizing the ecology that had been provided in bits and pieces in other reading. It does not contain much in the way of mathematics or more technical theory, nor really anything in the way of the methodology of ecological study. I particularly appreciate the diagrammatic language it adopts for describing ecological systems.

Looking at the distribution of the reviews, this book is rather divisive, with extremes being the more frequent rating. I can understand why: this book is preachy. I could see its tone either being inspiring and truth-revealing, or hackish and grating. For me, I found myself able to not pay much attention to that tone; it seems much of that part is a banal reflection of my existing biases.

This book was written in 1993, so it's interesting to see what has changed in 25 years. Certainly, climate change was not the obvious emergency it was now, more of a threat among many, with a certain vagueness that it's easy to see why addressing it was not a clear priority. Also, ecological succession and the path to ecosystem climax seemed like a more straightforward truth than we know today, with continuing varying cycles of succession being a more natural order. Finally, agroecology was clearly a more emerging idea, though the book does grapple a bit with relaxing the distinction between the natural and the cultivated.

Each chapter has recommended further reading, and there the author makes an unconventional choice. While many recommend a few outstanding follow-on items, and then provides a bibliography, the bibliography is only the beginning of the recommended reading list, with further selections provided. I enjoy this comprehensiveness and would probably find it to be a nice resource if it was a book I owned rather than borrowing from the library.

As a library selection, this is the kind of book we need more of: a brief but thorough conceptual guide to a complete subject.