Edited by John B. Rundle , Donald L. Turcotte , and William Klein

Scaling relationships have been a persistent theme in biology at least since the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo. This book conveys something of the diversity, promise, and excitement of current research in this area. Examples include branching patterns of blood vessels and plants, structural and functional correlates of body size, distributions of body size and abundance among species, and variations in the number of species with area. Because such scaling relationships are among the most general empirical patterns in biology, they have stimulated research to develop mechanistic hypotheses and mathematical models. While there have been many excellent empirical and theoretical investigations, there has been little attempt to synthesize this diverse but interrelated area of biology. In an effort to fill this void, a symposium entitled "Scaling in Biology: From Organisms to Ecosystems" was held at the Santa Fe Institute in October 1997. One outgrowth of this was the present volume, the first general treatment of scaling in biology in over 15 years. It covers a broad spectrum of the most relevant topics in a series of chapters written by experts in the field. The book is intended to be accessible to a wide audience including not only specialists in the various sub-disciplines, but also students. Topics include: allometry and fractal structure, branching of vascular systems of mammals and plants, biomechanical and life history of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, and species-area patterns of biological diversity.

About the Authors

James H. Brown is a member of the External Faculty at The Santa Fe Institute and Regents' Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico. He was educated at Cornell University (BA 1963) and the University of Michigan (Ph. D. 1967) and has held faculty positions at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Utah, and University of Arizona. His publications include five books and more than 150 scientific papers and book chapters. Brown considers himself primarily an ecologist and biogeographer. His interests in body size and biological scaling date from early training in physiology. His recent research program in macroecology stimulated a revival of interest in allometric scaling, especially the influence of size on the abundance, distribution, and diversity of species in ecological systems. It also led to collaboration with Geoffrey West and Brian Enquist to develop mathematical and biophysical models that analyze the influence of size on the structural and functional design of organisms.

Geoffrey West is a Staff Member, Fellow, and Program Manager for High Energy Physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also a member of The Santa Fe Institute. He is a native of England and was educated at Cambridge University (BA 1961). He received his Ph. D. from Stanford University in 1966 followed by post-doctoral appointments at Cornell and Harvard Universities. He returned to Stanford as a faculty member in 1970. He left to build and lead the Theoretical High Energy Physics Group at Los Alamos. He has numerous scientific publications including the editing of three books. His primary interest has been in fundamental questions in Physics, especially those concerning the elementary particles and their interactions. His long-term fascination in general scaling phenomena grew out of his work on scaling in quantum chromodynamics and the unification of all forces of nature. In 1996 this evolved into the highly productive collaboration with James Brown and Brian Enquist on the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology and the development of realistic quantitative models that analyze the influence of size on the structural and functional design of organisms.