Books in the Complexity in Ecological Systems series

This strategy, derived from Newtonian mechanism, is embodied in reductionism: break what is complicated into simpler pieces, understand the pieces themselves, and reconstruct organisms from this understanding. In Life Itself, Robert Rosen argues that such a view is neither necessary nor sufficient to answer the question.

Are ecosystems and their components continuously distributed and do they adhere to scaling laws, or are they discontinuous and more complex than early models would have us believe? This book argues that ecosystems are inherently discontinuous and that ecology, economics, and urban studies benefit from this paradigm shift.