Ecological Orbits: How Planets Move and Populations Grow by Lev Ginzburg and Mark Colyvan Department of Ecology and Evolution Stony Brook University Stony Brook, New York, USA, and Department of Philosophy University of Sydney Sydney, NSW, Australia

Publication Details

You can purchase a copy of this book from Oxford University Press or from Amazon.

Abstract

The inertial view of population growth is a significant departure from traditional ecological theory, which has been developing within the Lotka-Volterra framework for 75 years. The view advanced in this book focuses attention away from the growth rate as the major variable responding to the environment, and towards 'acceleration', or the rate of change of the growth rate between consecutive generations. If the inertial view of population growth proves correct, a great deal of current theory on population growth will need to be rethought and revised.

Chapters

Awards and Recognition

• Named among the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2005 by Choice: Current Review for Academic Libraries.
  
  
• Listed by Science Daily as one of the top ten population ecology books.
  
  
• Appeared in Academia's list of Academic Essentials in Biology (September 2004).

Advance Praise and Quotes from Reviews

"Engagingly written, and unique in perspective. Must reading for anyone seriously interested in theoretical ecology."
– Simon Levin, Princeton University

"This is a delightful little book. I recommend it highly as a true pleasure to read"
– Serge Luryi, Stony Brook University

"The authors analogy to physic's conceptual evolution is an entertaining and effective tool for presenting their key argument. Population dynamics are likely to be significantly influenced by their inertial properties. The book is very well written and generally entertaining to read. Equations are kept to a minimum, without ignoring them completely. Many readers should appreciate the interspersion of historical context and occasional anecdote, mixed with a steady undercurrent of philosophical discourse. This mix should widen the audience to include biologists and environmental scientists, with a few philosophy of science students thrown in."
– Timothy Mousseau, University of South Carolina

"Many ecologists suffer from physics envy and this book should be an excellent 'medicine' against this disease. Ginzburg and Colyvan do a great job of showing that physics and biology are not as different, at least from the point of view of philosophy of science, as some would portray. I found the discussion what laws of nature are very useful. I think that this book will be a significant influence on how ecologists think about their science."
– Peter Turchin, University of Connecticut

"Ecological Orbits may well turn out to mark [...] a transition from what was considered unthinkable – namely a rigorous and nontrivial theory of population dynamics akin to a law of nature – to a real scientific achievement."
– Gunter Wagner, Yale University

Reviews and Critical Notices

• Drake, J.M. (2005) American Midland Naturalist, (April 2005).
  
  
• Freckleton, R.P. (2005) 'Laws of Ecology', Ecology, 86(1): 271–2.
  
  
• Hoskins, S. (2006) The Biologist, 53(5).
  
  
• Hutchings, J.A. (2005) Choice: Current Review for Academic Libraries, 42(6) (February 2005).
  
  
• Krebs, C.J. (2005) The Quarterly Review of Biology, 80(1): 134–5.
  
  
• Luryi, S. (2006) 'Physics, Philosophy and ... Ecology', Physics Today, May 2006: 51.
  
  
• Matthewson, J. (2007) The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 85(3): 501–4.
  
  
• Ramsay, S.M. (2004) International Society for Behavioral Ecology Newsletter, 16(2): 21–3.
  
  
• Wagner, G. (2005) 'Mothers Driving Cycles', Science, 309 (23 September 2005): 2001.

Related Articles

• Colyvan, M. (2005) 'Probability and Ecological Complexity', Biology and Philosophy, 20(4): 869–79.
  
  
• Colyvan, M. (2008) 'Population Ecology', chapter in S. Sarkar and A. Plutynski (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Blackwell, pp. 301–20.
  
  
• Colyvan, M. and Ginzburg, L.R. (2003) 'The Galilean Turn in Population Ecology', Biology and Philosophy, 18(3): 401–14.
  
  
• Colyvan, M. and Ginzburg, L.R. (2003) 'Laws of Nature and Laws of Ecology', Oikos, 101(3): 649–53. To be reprinted in R.A. Skipper Jr., R. Ankeny, C.F. Craver, L. Darden, G.M. Mikkelson, and R.C. Richardson (eds.), Philosophy and the Life Sciences: A Reader, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA., 2005. Translated into Estonian (by Kalle Hein) and reprinted as 'Loodusseadused ja Ökoloogiaseadused' in Akadeemia, 2008, No. 7, 1493–504.
  
  
• Colyvan, M. and Ginzburg, L.R. (2010) 'Analogical Thinking in Ecology: Looking Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries', Quarterly Review of Biology, 85(2): 171–82.
  
  
• Ginzburg, L.R. and Damuth, J. (2008) 'The Space-Lifetime Hypothesis: Viewing Organisms in Four Dimensions, Literally', The American Naturalist, 171(1): 125–131.
  
  
• Ginzburg, L.R. and Jensen, C.X.J. (2004) 'Rules of Thumb for Judging Ecological Theories', Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 19(3): 121–26.
  
  
• Jensen, C.X.J. and Ginzburg, L.R. (2005) 'Paradoxes or Theoretical Failures? The Jury is Still Out', Ecological Modelling, 188(1): 3–14.

Errata

The authors (Mark left, Lev right) in New York in December 2003.