Overview

Ecology is characterized by the rapidly growing complexity and diversity of facts, aspects, examples and observations. Sorely needed is the development of common patterns, that, like in other sciences such as physics, can explain the increasing complexity and variability observed in more general terms. One commonly-held opinion is that the competition for energy is the most important factor in ecological interactions. The author of this study uses numerous examples from the animal kingdom that show a different pattern: the universal hunger for nitrogen as the misery that drives the ecology of all organisms. The study argues that the awareness of the limitation of nitrogen in the ecology of an organism should be as much a part of each ecologist's intellectual equipment as the awareness of the fact of evolution by means of natural selection. The author claims that nitrogen, rather than energy, is the most limited currency in the animal world for the production and growth of young.

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9783540568285

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