Document: JES-3-99-161

Three questions for ecology.

JAMES, F.C.*

Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306 USA ¹

Abstract:
In my opinion the most important question in ecology has always been and still is "What processes affect the distribution and abundance of animals and plants?" As with the blind man feeling parts of the elephant, population ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology take different approaches to answering this question, and it is difficult to get the whole picture. Even so, I think that the most progress can be made through what could be called the horizontal approach. The horizontal approach studies a focal species or population throughout its geographic range and evaluates the effects of species-specific abiotic and biotic limiting factors in the environment along with variation in fitness of the focal population. This approach cuts across all the subdisciplines of ecology. It builds on the past work of Andrewartha and Birch. My second question is also about processes. "How can land managers and ecologists work together to design projects that provide comparisons among management alternatives?" At present there is too little collaboration between managers, ecologists, and wildlife biologists. Ecologists will push for large-scale experiments. When they are not feasible, ecologists will advocate the incorporation of principles of experimental design into management projects. This approach should provide better predictions about the relative merits of land-use alternatives. My third question is "How can we develop standardized surveys of animals and plants that can be incorporated into national and international data bases"? The objective is to provide better tracking of biodiversity worldwide.

Keywords: approach

This abstract is being presented at: 10:55 AM in session:
Symposium # 7: Thirty Questions for Ecology in the 21st Century.