You should be able to do the following kinds of things:

1. Outline some major ideas about the "ecosystem" concept (see Chap. 9.

2. Discuss the rationale involved in the trends Odum presents in his tabular model or succession or maturation.

3. Compare the attributes of a climax community with one Odum's model would describe as mature. Need climax and maturity necessarily be coincidental?

4. The following is a quote from MacArthur's Island Biogeography:

   "A theory attempts to identify the factors that determine a class of phenomena and to state the permissible relationships among the factors as a set of verifiable propositions. A purpose is to simplify our education by substituting one theory for many facts. A good theory points to possible factors and relationships in the real world that would otherwise remain hidden and thus stimulates new forms of empirical research. Even a first, crude theory can have these virtues. If it can also account for, say 85% of the variation in some phenomenon of interest, it will have served its purpose well."

   What is your opinion of his point of view?

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