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Nature 458, 579-580 (2 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/458579a; Published online 1 April 2009
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Postdoctoral Research in Functional Genomics
- Harvard School of Public Health, computer science, biology, bioinformatics,
- Boston, MA
Senior Analyst - SCI
- Indegene Lifesystems Pvt. Ltd
- Bengaluru 560 071 India
Ecology: Gini in the bottle
Shahid Naeem1
Abstract
An elaborate microcosm study has a message for the wider world: declining distributional equity among species, where the rare become rarer, and the dominant become more dominant, can put ecosystems at risk.
In the 1770s, Joseph Priestley, the father of biogeochemistry1, conducted his famous experiments in which he placed mice and mint plants in bottles, and discovered the balance between 'putrefying' and 'regenerative' processes. Priestley thus began the tradition of using organisms in microcosms to explore nature.
- Shahid Naeem is in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Email: sn2121@columbia.edu
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