Agriculture and Human Values 18: 239–240, 2001.

Book review

Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the CommonsBy Simon LevinReading, Massachusetts: Perseus Books, 1999,250 pp. Hb, ISBN 0-7382-0111-1

AMITRAJEET A. BATABYALDepartment of Economics, Rochester Institute ofTechnology, Rochester, NY 14623-5604, USA

The subject matter of Fragile Dominion is biodiversity.The book discusses the salience and the conservationof biodiversity by exploring six interrelated questions.What patterns exist in nature? What is the role of thelocal environment and historical factors in determiningthese patterns? How do ecosystems assemble them-selves? What role does evolution play in influencingthese ecological assemblages? What is the relation-ship between an ecosystems’s structure and its func-tions? Finally, does evolution increase the resilienceof an ecosystem? The author uses the nine chapters ofthis book to explain why a diminution in biodiversity“threatens the very structural and functional integrityof the Earth’s systems, and ultimately the survival ofhumanity” (p. 2). Rather than provide a tedious chapterby chapter review, in what follows, I shall evaluatethe contents of five of the book’s nine chapters. Thisshould provide the reader with a good idea of theintellectual contributions of this book.

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to the six questionsof this book in a nice way and it points out the useful-ness of viewing the biosphere as a complex adaptivesystem. This chapter makes two key points. First, itis noted that homeostatic mechanisms are importantnot only because they regulate ecosystem processes,but also because these mechanisms maintain the resili-ence of ecosystems in the face of disturbances. Second,the author points out that “understanding how ecosys-tems work requires understanding [these] homeostaticmechanisms, and doing so requires, in turn, studyingsystems far from equilibrium” (pp. 52–53, emphasis inoriginal).

Chapter 4 explores the role that history plays inshaping the organization of complex systems. As theauthor explains, some amount of ecological detectivework reveals that the composition and the organiza-tion of communities are determined largely by local

environmental conditions and the vagaries of history.Pointing to the role of stochasticity, the author rightlynotes that uncertainty “is the parent of biodiversity,and localized disturbances such as fires – which, atleast up to a point, increase the level of uncertainty– are key to the maintenance of diversity” (p. 80).This is a nice chapter; however, this chapter’s discus-sion of plant communities is a little incomplete. Inparticular, although the author provides a competentdiscussion of the competing views of Henry Gleasonand Frederic Clements (see p. 71), he does not mentionthe “state-and-transition” model of Mark Westoby etal. (1989). Given that this model has been very usefulin comprehending the behavior of a number of ecosys-tems, particularly arid and semi-arid rangelands, somecommentary on this model would have made thediscussion of plant communities complete.

Ecological assembly is the subject of Chapter 5.The author tees off with a cogent discussion of thebiology of islands. He points out that “islands areconstantly in flux in terms of their species composi-tion, [and] that they reach a balance between arrivalsand departures so that the number of species reachesan equilibrium” (p. 83). Following this, the authornotes that as far as the task of environmental manage-ment is concerned, it is important to appreciate thefact that ecosystems and socioeconomic systems aresimilar in that they are both examples of complexadaptive systems. My only concern here relates to thefollowing sentence. The author says that social “andeconomic systems are similar in that their structuresand macroscopic dynamics largely emerge from theselfish behaviors of individual agents rather than fromtop-down control” (p. 104). The claim here is valid forsome kinds of socioeconomic systems but certainly notfor all such systems. In particular, I do not believethis claim applies to the socioeconomic systems incontemporary Iraq, North Korea, or Syria. Going backa few years, it also does not apply to the socioeconomicsystems in Cambodia under Pol Pot or to Uganda underIdi Amin.

Chapter 7 contains a splendid account of the formand the functions of ecosystems. This chapter is partic-ularly well written and it makes a number of thoughtprovoking points. First, the author points out thatecosystem processes typically reflect the influence of a

240 BOOK REVIEW

few salient species and that diversity itself matters littlebeyond the identities of these salient species. Second,it is noted that ecosystems are not random collec-tions of parts, but that they become organized intohierarchies; further, “this hierarchical organizationmatters a lot for how ecosystems function” (p. 162).Finally, the author argues that the “fundamental chal-lenge remains to determine how [ecosystem] structureaffects resilience” (p. 172). These are all significantpoints and they deserve to have been made. However,as noted in Holling et al. (1995), it is important tobe aware of the fact that the term “resilience” is usedin two ways in the ecology literature. Although it isgenerally clear that the author has the Buzz Hollingdefinition of resilience in mind, it would have beennice if he had mentioned this duality and distin-guished between the Holling and the Pimm notions ofresilience.

Chapter 9 contains the author’s eight command-ments of environmental management. These com-mandments ask us to (i) reduce uncertainty, (ii) expectsurprise (in the sense of Buzz Holling), (iii) maintainheterogeneity, (iv) sustain modularity, (v) preserveredundancy, (vi) tighten feedback loops, (vii) buildtrust, and (viii) do unto others as we would have themdo unto us. These are certainly useful commandments

and the author explains their significance in compre-hensible terms. Moreover, he nicely expands the scopeof these commandments by pointing out the manysimilarities between ecosystems and socioeconomicsystems.

In conclusion let me say that this is a remarkablebook. The author’s writing style is informal, his proseis easy to follow, his many examples are instructive,and his story is compelling. Consequently, I have abso-lutely no hesitation in recommending this book to allreaders who are interested in learning more about themany and varied connections between biodiversity andour own existence.

References

Holling, C. S., D. W Schindler, B. Walker, and J. Roughgarden(1995). “Biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems: Anecological synthesis,” in C. Perrings, K. G. Maler, C.Folke, C. S. Holling, and B. O. Jansson (eds.), BiodiversityLoss: Economic and Ecological Issues. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press.

Westoby, M., B. Walker, and I. Noy-Meir (1989). “Opportun-istic management for rangelands not at equilibrium.” Journalof Range Management 42: 266–274.