American Geographical Society

Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology by Dieter Mueller-Dombois; Heinz EllenbergReview by: A. W. KuchlerGeographical Review, Vol. 66, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 114-116Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/213332 .

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THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

prior periods] is that landforms produced under previous different conditions stand a good chance of persisting or being preserved in the new, less active, environment. Thus it is that the

problem of 'fossil' or 'relict' landforms has become central to studies of desert geomorphology." One could not ask for a more cogent statement of what many consider the major problem of desert landform interpretation. Yet Cooke and Warren expressly exclude the subject of relict forms from their subsequent discussions, their general outlook being well expressed when they state: "As the return periods of events are increased we enter more and more into the field of the paleoclimatic speculation that has cluttered most discussions of desert slope processes."

The authors' bias becomes a limitation in Part Two, where their inquiries into weathering forms and soils disregard the question of prior climatic influences, which in many instances are the paramount factor in current weathering styles as well as in existing desert soil morphology. Similarly, the lengthy treatment of pediment systems in Part Three ignores the entire European literature on pediments in varying climates and contains no hint of the amply demonstrated fact that the extensive hard-rock pediments encountered in deserts are inherited from prior nondesert landscapes. In the absence of this crucial information, much of the verbiage lavished on pediment morphometry, current geomorphic processes on pediments, and inviable theories of pediment initiation under current conditions takes on a faint aura of red herring dragged across the reader's path. Seen in its proper perspective as an analysis of the nature of current modification of inherited forms, this same information is quite worth assembling.

The authors' vexation with the qualitative thinking implicit in paleoclimatic reconstruction is perhaps most apparent in their surprising neglect of the most significant findings of J. A. Mabbutt and others regarding the evolution of central Australian landscapes, of the discoveries of French and German investigators of the central Saharan region, and of K. W. Butzer's in-

vestigations in the Nubian area. The principal works of these scholars do not even appear in the book's bibliography. Ironically, but most appropriately, the final two words in

"Geomorphology in Deserts" are "paleoform survival." This comes rather late, but it could be the start of a second work that would complete the story of desert landforms.

Nevertheless, much of the English-speaking audience in geomorphology and arid lands studies will feel that any deficiencies in Cooke and Warren's circumscribed approach are fully offset by the wealth of information the authors have synthesized and presented so adeptly. Surely this is one of the most useful and most readable works to have appeared in either area. A feature that will be appreciated is an index that is a paragon of organization and completeness. First edition woes include some erroneous figure references in the text, improperly oriented full-

page figures, and incorrect units on two graph scales. Although the text figures are generally beneficial, many of the photographic illustrations appear to have been reproduced from colored

transparencies and are tragically lacking in definition and tonal scale. Those of dune forms are excellent. Otherwise, the book is pleasingly packaged.-T. M. OBERLANDER

AIMS AND METHODS OF VEGETATION ECOLOGY. By DIETER MUELLER-DOMBOIS and HEINZ ELLENBERG. xx and 547 pp.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. John Wiley & Sons, New York, London, and elsewhere, 1974. $13.95. 9/4 x 612 inches.

In 1956 Ellenberg published a small book, "Aufgaben und Methoden der Vegetationskunde [Aims and Methods of Phytocenology] " (Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart). It turned out to be a real

gem, exceedingly rich in content and masterfully presented. Unfortunately, few Americans knew about it. Now the book has been rewritten with a coauthor, updated, and much enlarged. Best of all, it is now published in English.

Although much of the original text is included, basically it is an entirely new book, com-

prehensive and in all likelihood the definitive work on the subject for many years to come. The authors have attempted to synthesize Anglo-American and continental European ideas and methods in the study of vegetation and have succeeded very well. Their discussions are lucid, and the reader is better able than ever to appreciate the differences in approach and their

prior periods] is that landforms produced under previous different conditions stand a good chance of persisting or being preserved in the new, less active, environment. Thus it is that the

problem of 'fossil' or 'relict' landforms has become central to studies of desert geomorphology." One could not ask for a more cogent statement of what many consider the major problem of desert landform interpretation. Yet Cooke and Warren expressly exclude the subject of relict forms from their subsequent discussions, their general outlook being well expressed when they state: "As the return periods of events are increased we enter more and more into the field of the paleoclimatic speculation that has cluttered most discussions of desert slope processes."

The authors' bias becomes a limitation in Part Two, where their inquiries into weathering forms and soils disregard the question of prior climatic influences, which in many instances are the paramount factor in current weathering styles as well as in existing desert soil morphology. Similarly, the lengthy treatment of pediment systems in Part Three ignores the entire European literature on pediments in varying climates and contains no hint of the amply demonstrated fact that the extensive hard-rock pediments encountered in deserts are inherited from prior nondesert landscapes. In the absence of this crucial information, much of the verbiage lavished on pediment morphometry, current geomorphic processes on pediments, and inviable theories of pediment initiation under current conditions takes on a faint aura of red herring dragged across the reader's path. Seen in its proper perspective as an analysis of the nature of current modification of inherited forms, this same information is quite worth assembling.

The authors' vexation with the qualitative thinking implicit in paleoclimatic reconstruction is perhaps most apparent in their surprising neglect of the most significant findings of J. A. Mabbutt and others regarding the evolution of central Australian landscapes, of the discoveries of French and German investigators of the central Saharan region, and of K. W. Butzer's in-

vestigations in the Nubian area. The principal works of these scholars do not even appear in the book's bibliography. Ironically, but most appropriately, the final two words in

"Geomorphology in Deserts" are "paleoform survival." This comes rather late, but it could be the start of a second work that would complete the story of desert landforms.

Nevertheless, much of the English-speaking audience in geomorphology and arid lands studies will feel that any deficiencies in Cooke and Warren's circumscribed approach are fully offset by the wealth of information the authors have synthesized and presented so adeptly. Surely this is one of the most useful and most readable works to have appeared in either area. A feature that will be appreciated is an index that is a paragon of organization and completeness. First edition woes include some erroneous figure references in the text, improperly oriented full-

page figures, and incorrect units on two graph scales. Although the text figures are generally beneficial, many of the photographic illustrations appear to have been reproduced from colored

transparencies and are tragically lacking in definition and tonal scale. Those of dune forms are excellent. Otherwise, the book is pleasingly packaged.-T. M. OBERLANDER

AIMS AND METHODS OF VEGETATION ECOLOGY. By DIETER MUELLER-DOMBOIS and HEINZ ELLENBERG. xx and 547 pp.; maps, diagrs., bibliogr., index. John Wiley & Sons, New York, London, and elsewhere, 1974. $13.95. 9/4 x 612 inches.

In 1956 Ellenberg published a small book, "Aufgaben und Methoden der Vegetationskunde [Aims and Methods of Phytocenology] " (Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart). It turned out to be a real

gem, exceedingly rich in content and masterfully presented. Unfortunately, few Americans knew about it. Now the book has been rewritten with a coauthor, updated, and much enlarged. Best of all, it is now published in English.

Although much of the original text is included, basically it is an entirely new book, com-

prehensive and in all likelihood the definitive work on the subject for many years to come. The authors have attempted to synthesize Anglo-American and continental European ideas and methods in the study of vegetation and have succeeded very well. Their discussions are lucid, and the reader is better able than ever to appreciate the differences in approach and their

II4 II4

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GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEWS

meaning. Ellenberg, of course, is one of Europe's most distinguished ecologists, while Mueller-

Dombois, also an important German ecologist in his own right, has lived and worked so many years in various parts of Canada and the United States that he has become a capable in-

terpreter of the American approach. Quite justifiably, therefore, the reader expects a substan- tive work. He is not disappointed.

The authors claim to have invented the term "vegetation ecology," which serves as the title of their book, and they begin with a discussion of the terminological confusion prevailing in

vegetation science. Unwittingly, they illustrate the confusion in their tabular arrangement of various terms, where they present vegetation science as a European term, although it has been used in the United States for decades. As to "vegetation ecology," the authors use it as a syn- onym for the technical term "phytocenology" (the scientific study of vegetation), a word that could well have served as a more logical and less confusing title of their book or at least as a subtitle. A brief section on background and current trends leads to a discussion of plant- community hypotheses and to considerations in vegetation sampling.

The entire second part is devoted to vegetation analysis in the field. It contains a discussion of the basis of the releve method, of measuring species quantities, and of various sampling techniques. The reader will recall that this material was covered by Stanley A. Cain and G. NM. de Oliveira Castro in their excellent "Manual of Vegetation Analysis" (Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1959), and there is indeed some unavoidable overlap. The manner of

presentation and the up-to-date descriptions and discussions make this a valuable section. The third part of the book deals with the classification and ordination of vegetation data and

is one of the two most important sections of the book. It begins with a most useful treatment of vegetation structure and classification units. This is followed by a detailed description of the

European method of classifying vegetation by tabular comparison, which I first presented in

English in "Vegetation Mapping" (Ronald Press Co., New York, 1967). In this most recent elucidation of the establishment of phytocenoses with the help of diagnostic species, the reader learns step by step the basic techniques that have permitted European phytocenology to become so eminently practical and applicable to an extraordinary variety of purposes. Part Three ends with a discussion of mathematical treatments of vegetation data. This is probably the best current introduction to the application of mathematical methods to vegetation analysis, but the authors emphasize correctly and wisely that their contribution is just that: an introduction. They make no attempt to treat the matter comprehensively.

Part Four is the other major part of the book. It begins with vegetation-environment correla- tion studies, followed by Ellenberg's classical "causal-analytical inquiries into the origin of plant communities." The chapter on competition is especially thought-provoking and reveals better than anything else the incredible complexity of the ecosystem, utterly destroying any no- tion that the ecosystem can be analyzed by a few factors. Every student of ecology should be made to read this chapter. The stability of plant communities is discussed next, and a section on vegetation mapping closes Part Four. Vegetation mapping is necessarily treated in a con- densed fashion but nevertheless quite comprehensively, so that the reader can obtain insight into some of the problems that a mapper must face.

The conclusion, little more than four pages long, synthesizes aims and methods in

phytocenology. This part is perhaps a little brief, but the reader may have become so overwhelmed by the book's vast number of ideas, facts, and techniques that he is no longer capable of absorbing more. The brevity is not misplaced.

Four appendixes follow. The first of these is a detailed key to the growth forms of plants. It is essentially a revision of an earlier version of Raunkiaer's life forms and is the most complete key available. The second appendix, "Tentative Physiognomic-Ecological Classification of Plant Formations of the Earth," is a revision of an earlier work that served as a basis of discussion for the UNESCO classification of vegetation. It is not clear why the authors did not present the more useful final version of the UNESCO classification. This classification is intended for vegetation maps at a scale of i : 1,000,000 or less, but the authors include numerous details that

lI5

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THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

could not possibly be shown at such a small scale. These details are said to indicate how the UNESCO classification can be refined to serve maps of larger scales. Unfortunately, the authors fail to indicate which categories exemplify such details and, as a result, their classifica- tion is unbalanced. Perhaps, in a later edition, such details can be indicated as going beyond the UNESCO classification. Keys for mapping structural vegetation types of southeastern Sri Lanka and forest habitat types in southeastern Manitoba conclude the series of appendixes.

As I indicated at the outset, this is a book of the greatest importance for all those interested in phytocenology. It can serve simultaneously as a text and as a reference book. Although both authors are professional botanists, their ecological interests and their broad experience make the book most valuable for geographers as well.-A. W. KOCHLER

THE BLACK INNER CITY AS FRONTIER OUTPOST: Images and Behavior of a

Philadelphia Neighborhood. By DAVID LEY. xiii and 282 pp.; maps, diagrs., biblogr. Association of American Geographers Monograph Series No. 7. Washington, I).C., 1974. $6.95. 8 / x 5 '2 inches.

This book has two objectives: to map the various parts of a black inner-city neighborhood in

Philadelphia; and to identify its environmental characteristics and variations in the behavior of its residents toward certain landmarks. The first objective involved an examination of the

"reality" of life in a black inner-city neighborhood, whereas the second demanded an analysis of the cognitive and behavioral processes operating in an environment where, according to Ley, stress and uncertainty are commonplace.

To achieve the two stated objectives, the author conceptualizes the inner city as a system comprising the linked subsystems of community and external environment. He then considers the questions: "What kind of system is a black inner-city neighborhood?" and 'Is it analogous to a frontier outpost?" Strongly influenced by the ideas presented by Kurt Lewin in "A

Dynamic Theory of Personality" (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1935), Ley adopts the

philosophy that the only means of understanding a complex system (like the inner city) is

through an understanding of the basic forces and processes that direct its behavior. These

processes, Ley claims, have universal application and are therefore latent in all systems, although local field forces may produce variations in the strength of their local operation. Lewin advised investigators not to abstract from a situation but to seek out those situations in which the deterministic factors of the total dynamic structure are most clearly and purely dis-

cerned. From this perspective Ley develops the analogy of the black inner city as a frontier out-

post. First, using secondary sources, Ley assesses the images of black America that white society

and white social scientists hold. He concludes that the popular white image of black America is

false, for it is grounded in history and American institutions, nurtured by social and spatial segregation, and traditionally reinforced by the white media from which most Americans derive their most important and in many cases only insight into black America. Ignorance and lack of

firsthand information have helped white Americans believe in the existence of a monolithic, hostile, organized black community that is preparing for revolution in collaboration with out- side agitators.

Another image that Ley reveals is less widespread and more subtle. Its origins are scholarly rather than popular, and its source lies in the interactionist or transactionist school of social scientific thought. This school regards community as interaction and sees political unity as en- forced by internalized transactions and closed communication cells. From it comes the

separatist image created by black pride and the struggle for black power. Black power is viewed

as so aggressive that it seems to be transcending a critical threshold for the maintenance of a

healthy pluralistic society. Occasional visits to the inner city will not change these false images. Ley states that for the casual white observer with only superficial knowledge of the inner city, support for both images-that is, the image of black homogeneity and hostility and the image

could not possibly be shown at such a small scale. These details are said to indicate how the UNESCO classification can be refined to serve maps of larger scales. Unfortunately, the authors fail to indicate which categories exemplify such details and, as a result, their classifica- tion is unbalanced. Perhaps, in a later edition, such details can be indicated as going beyond the UNESCO classification. Keys for mapping structural vegetation types of southeastern Sri Lanka and forest habitat types in southeastern Manitoba conclude the series of appendixes.

As I indicated at the outset, this is a book of the greatest importance for all those interested in phytocenology. It can serve simultaneously as a text and as a reference book. Although both authors are professional botanists, their ecological interests and their broad experience make the book most valuable for geographers as well.-A. W. KOCHLER

THE BLACK INNER CITY AS FRONTIER OUTPOST: Images and Behavior of a

Philadelphia Neighborhood. By DAVID LEY. xiii and 282 pp.; maps, diagrs., biblogr. Association of American Geographers Monograph Series No. 7. Washington, I).C., 1974. $6.95. 8 / x 5 '2 inches.

This book has two objectives: to map the various parts of a black inner-city neighborhood in

Philadelphia; and to identify its environmental characteristics and variations in the behavior of its residents toward certain landmarks. The first objective involved an examination of the

"reality" of life in a black inner-city neighborhood, whereas the second demanded an analysis of the cognitive and behavioral processes operating in an environment where, according to Ley, stress and uncertainty are commonplace.

To achieve the two stated objectives, the author conceptualizes the inner city as a system comprising the linked subsystems of community and external environment. He then considers the questions: "What kind of system is a black inner-city neighborhood?" and 'Is it analogous to a frontier outpost?" Strongly influenced by the ideas presented by Kurt Lewin in "A

Dynamic Theory of Personality" (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1935), Ley adopts the

philosophy that the only means of understanding a complex system (like the inner city) is

through an understanding of the basic forces and processes that direct its behavior. These

processes, Ley claims, have universal application and are therefore latent in all systems, although local field forces may produce variations in the strength of their local operation. Lewin advised investigators not to abstract from a situation but to seek out those situations in which the deterministic factors of the total dynamic structure are most clearly and purely dis-

cerned. From this perspective Ley develops the analogy of the black inner city as a frontier out-

post. First, using secondary sources, Ley assesses the images of black America that white society

and white social scientists hold. He concludes that the popular white image of black America is

false, for it is grounded in history and American institutions, nurtured by social and spatial segregation, and traditionally reinforced by the white media from which most Americans derive their most important and in many cases only insight into black America. Ignorance and lack of

firsthand information have helped white Americans believe in the existence of a monolithic, hostile, organized black community that is preparing for revolution in collaboration with out- side agitators.

Another image that Ley reveals is less widespread and more subtle. Its origins are scholarly rather than popular, and its source lies in the interactionist or transactionist school of social scientific thought. This school regards community as interaction and sees political unity as en- forced by internalized transactions and closed communication cells. From it comes the

separatist image created by black pride and the struggle for black power. Black power is viewed

as so aggressive that it seems to be transcending a critical threshold for the maintenance of a

healthy pluralistic society. Occasional visits to the inner city will not change these false images. Ley states that for the casual white observer with only superficial knowledge of the inner city, support for both images-that is, the image of black homogeneity and hostility and the image

II6 II6

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