ABSTRACT
Scale is a major consideration in ecological science writing, especially when writers describe the ecosystem as a distinct object of study. This chapter looks at the figurative language that ecologists use to communicate the ecosystem concept through analogies with objects from smaller scales. The first is the superorganism, or the ecosystem imagined as a larger-scale organism. Over the course of the twentieth century, ecologists become critical of this trope and replace it with others. In particular, these other tropes describe the ecosystem as a chain, a wheel, a terrarium or aquarium, and a computer or digital network. Analyzing these tropes is an instructive case study about the relationship between scale and figurative language in scientific communication.
