Menno Schilthuizen
Menno Schilthuizen (1965) is a Dutch evolutionary biologist, ecologist, and permanent research scientist at the National Museum of Natural History 'Naturalis' in Leiden and an honorary professor in insect biodiversity at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He published numerous articles about evolution and ecology and two popular science books which were both reviewed in Nature.[1][2]
Education
Menno Schilthuizen graduated from and received his PhD at Leiden University.
Career
From 1995 to 2000 he worked at Wageningen University. From 2000 to 2006 he worked at the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, where he studied land snail ecology and evolution in tropical forests, caves, and limestone habitats. In January 2007 he became deputy-director of research at Naturalis Museum, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Books
- The Loom of Life: Unravelling Ecosystems, 2008. Springer, hardback 168 pages. ISBN 978-3540680512
- Frogs Flies and Dandelions: The Making of Species, 2002. Oxford University Press paperback 254 pages. ISBN 978-0198503927
The Loom of Life
The Loom of Life is a 134 page history of the origin and evolution of ecology as a science. It introduces the reader to the founding fathers of ecology (Charles Elton, Raymond Lindeman) and those that developed it (Edward Wilson, Robert MacArthur, Raymond Lindeman, Frank Preston, Stephen Hubbell). It describes groundbreaking publications and basic ecological concepts (food chains, NPP, niche, ecosystem, ecosystem stability, diversity, complexity, productivity, invasibility) and observations ("The world is green!"). After descriptions of relations between variables such as between food chain length and NPP, or between body length and abundance, more sophisticated principles (competitive exclusion; top down - bottom up regulation), rules (tens rule), and hypotheses (Janzen-Cornell hypothesis) follow, culminating in theoretical ecology which allows for predictions. The book follows a historical path and simultaneously presents a science in the making. A science which is becoming ever more mature, complex and interesting. The last chapter is about two important topics: human caused extinction ("wilful, intentional genocide waged against biodiversity") and invasive species, which are now problems of global proportions. All this is interspersed with relevant anecdotes, mini interviews with important ecologists and exquisite black-and-white drawings by MS himself.
Selected articles
- Schilthuizen, M., 2005. 'On the origin of reproductive isolation'. BioEssays, 27: 669-670
- Schilthuizen, M., 2000. 'Dualism and conflicts in understanding speciation'. BioEssays, 22: 1134-1141