This book provides an entirely fresh view of the origins of organization in living systems. Ulanowicz mounts a powerful challenge to prevailing mechanistic paradigms of ecology. Instead, he offers a concise introduction to theoretical perspectives better able to explain the structure, growth, development, and decline of ecosystems - from a leaf of aquatic grass to an entire tropical forest. Ecology, Ulanowicz argues, needs a more robust central paradigm, and this book presents one derived from current work in complexity, information theory, and ecosystem energetics; the result is a theoretical and empirical tool kit better able to measure the developmental status of any living community.
Anyone seriously interested in ecosystems or in theoretical ecology will find this book to be well written, stimulating, and worth reading. Quarterly Review of Biology