The Physiology of a Lake as a Whole

Edward A. Birge on “Lake Respiration” and the Lake-to-Organism Analogy

Abstract

Analogies between ecological systems and organisms are a common trope in early ecology, but discussions of these analogies tend to focus on the particular version of them found in the works of pioneer plant ecologist Frederic E. Clements (1874-1945). This paper partly fills this gap by analyzing the relatively well-developed version of the analogy between lake ecological systems and organisms found in the works of founding American limnologist Edward Asahel Birge (1851-1950). I argue that although, for Birge, the lake-to-organism parallel did not imply that lakes were literally organisms, it reflected his commitment to a holistic view of lakes, which anticipated the distinctive holological perspective on ecological systems of later ecosystem ecology.