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Book review

Modeling for All Scales

An Introduction to System Simulation

IACR-Rothamsted Harpenden, Herts, AL5 2JQ, UK

tom.addiscott{at}bbsrc.ac.uk

Howard T. Odum and Elisabeth C. Odum, Academic Press, 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495. 2000. 444 p. $79.95. ISBN 0-12-524170-4.

People learn best when they are entertained at the same time. Modeling for All Scales: An Introduction to System Simulation is a strongly practically oriented book which enables you to have some serious fun while acquiring computer modeling skills. The authors provide an introduction to modeling and then lead you into the subject with a series of examples of dynamic systems in each of which you are given a brief exposition of the topic, a flow diagram for the system, an explanation of the equations in the model, and the code for the computer program. There is a CD attached to the back cover which contains the programs, so you can start modeling almost as easily as you can play a computer game.

The authors are distinguished systems ecologists, and many of the numerous models relate to ecological concepts such as growth, competition, and succession. However, a wealth of other topics are included. There are economic models, global geobiological models, and models for trade and war which, as the authors point out, are not without ecological relevance. Animal populations trade—think of cleaner fish, which clean parasites off large ocean fish in exchange for food. They also go to war—usually over territory. The wide range of scales implied by the title is covered. There is some mention of chaotic systems, but not as much as might have been expected given the increasingly wide recognition of chaotic phenomena in natural systems. Non-linearity is not even in the index, possibly because of the target audience.

The book uses object-oriented programming and intuitively based symbols. Much of the programming is in BASIC, but EXTEND and STELLA are also used. EXTEND is an interesting system which I had not encountered before; it uses pre-programmed icon blocks which are connected to provide simulations. The book is aimed at people with a limited background in mathematics and appears to meet their needs. The programs seem to have been user-tested quite widely on university students, but they will probably be accessible to reasonably numerate high school students and useful to research workers.

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