沿海海洋生态系统

物理科学的一个目标是给物质世界一幅精确的图画。20世纪物理学的一项成就就是证明了这个目标是无法实现的. . . .没有绝对的知识。凡是主张它的人，无论他们是科学家还是教条主义者，都为悲剧打开了大门。所有的信息都是不完美的。我们必须以谦卑的态度对待它。对于我们来说，以雅各布·布朗诺夫斯基充满激情的信息作为这本书的开头似乎特别合适。那些着手构建数值模型的人，特别是那些机械性和本质上确定性的模型，必须始终以这种意识作为他们努力的背景。但对于最细心的生理学家或最善于观察的博物学家来说也是如此。我们都在处理简化和抽象的问题，都试图弄明白自然是如何运作的。 Unfortunately, this common pursuit does not always lead to mutual understanding, and we have become increasingly aware over the past six years that many ecologists feel a certain hostility or at least distrust toward numerical modeling. In a number of cases the reasons for such feelings are personal and very understandable-hard gotten data skimmed off by someone with little appreciation for the difficulties involved in obtaining reliable measurements, grandiose claims of predictability, the tendency for some model builders to treat other scientists as number-getters whose research can be directed in response to the needs of the model, etc.