Ecological Paradigms Lost (eBook)

Foreword 15
PREFACE 21
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 23
1: WHY A HISTORY OF ECOLOGY? AN INTRODUCTION 25
REFERENCES 30
PART I: POPULATION ECOLOGY 31
2: UNSTRUCTURED MODELS IN ECOLOGY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 33
2.1 INTRODUCTION 33
2.2 THE BASIC (DETERMINISTIC) UNSTRUCTURED MODELS 35
2.3 SINGLE SPECIES 36
2.3.1 Continuous Time 36
2.3.2 Discrete Time 38
2.4 TWO SPECIES 40
2.4.1 Continuous Time Exploiter-Victim Models 41
2.4.2 Nicholson-Bailey Discrete Time Models 43
2.4.3 SIR Epidemiological Models 45
2.4.4 Competition 47
2.5 MORE THAN TWO SPECIES 48
2.6 TIME SERIES AND MODEL FITTING 49
2.7 THE FUTURE OF UNSTRUCTURED MODELS 50
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 51
REFERENCES 51
3: UNSTRUCTURED POPULATION MODELS: DO POPULATION-LEVEL ASSUMPTIONS YIELD GENERAL THEORY? 55
3.1 INTRODUCTION 55
3.2 CORE THEORY OR LIMITING CASE? 59
3.3 DERIVING GENERAL POPULATION MODELS: STARTING WITH THE INDIVIDUAL 61
3.4 THREE CASE STUDIES 64
3.4.1 Consumer-Resource Interactions 64
3.4.2 Tritrophic Food Chain 67
3.4.3 Cannibalism 69
3.4.4 Overall Conclusions 72
3.5 AN APPROPRIATE MODELLING FRAMEWORK: PHYSIOLOGICALLY STRUCTURED POPULATION MODELS 74
3.6 ON TESTABILITY 76
3.7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUDING REMARKS 77
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 82
REFERENCES 82
4: THE “STRUCTURE” OF POPULATION ECOLOGY: PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS ON UNSTRUCTURED AND STRUCTURED MODELS 87
4.1 INTRODUCTION 87
4.2 MODELS, MODELS, AND MORE MODELS 88
4.3 REVISITING MODELLING TRADE-OFFS 92
4.4 GENERALITY? 94
4.5 REDUCTIONISM REDUX 96
4.6 STRUCTURAL PLURALISM 98
4.7 CONCLUSION 100
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 100
REFERENCES 100
PART II: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY 103
5: THE LAW OF MASS-ACTION IN EPIDEMIOLOGY: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 105
5.1 INTRODUCTION 105
5.2 CATO MAXIMILIAN GULDBERG AND PETER WAAGE 106
5.3 WILLIAM HEATON HAMER 108
5.4 RONALD ROSS AND ANDERSON McKENDRICK 115
5.5 HERBERT EDWARD SOPER 119
5.6 A SCIENCE TAKING FLIGHT 125
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 127
REFERENCES 127
6: EXTENSIONS TO MASS-ACTION MIXING 131
6.1 INTRODUCTION 131
6.2 FUNCTIONAL FORMS 133
6.3 METAPOPULATION MODELS 135
6.4 CELLULAR AUTOMATA 141
6.5 NETWORK MODELS 144
6.6 ANALYTICAL APPROXIMATIONS: POWER-LAW EXPONENTS 148
6.7 ANALYTICAL APPROXIMATIONS: PAIR-WISE MODELS 150
6.8: ANALYTICAL APPROXIMATIONS: MOMENT CLOSURE 157
6.9: CONCLUSIONS 160
REFERENCES 162
7: MASS-ACTION AND SYSTEM ANALYSIS OF INFECTION TRANSMISSION 167
7.1 INTRODUCTION 167
7.2 MODEL FORMS AS PARADIGMS FOR THEORY CHANGE 170
7.3 ROBUSTNESS ASSESSMENT 175
7.4 ADVANCING A SCIENCE OF INFECTION TRANSMISSION SYSTEM ANALYSIS 176
REFERENCES 178
PART III: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 181
8: COMMUNITY DIVERSITY AND STABILITY: CHANGING PERSPECTIVES AND CHANGING DEFINITIONS 183
8.1 INTRODUCTION 183
8.2 HISTORY 184
8.3 MULTIPLE TYPES OF STABILITY IN A MODEL ECOSYSTEM 186
8.3.1 The 1970s and 1980s 188
8.3.2 The 1950s and 1960s 191
8.3.3 The 1990s 193
8.3.4 Summary 194
8.4 TESTING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND STABILITY 195
8.4.1 The 1950s and 1960s 195
8.4.2 The 1970s and 1980s 197
8.4.3 The 1990s 198
8.4.4 Summary 199
8.5 SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIFIC “TESTS” 199
Q1: What Is the Most Appropriate Measure of Diversity? 200
Q2: How Strong Are Species Interactions, and Are They Linear and Additive? 200
Q3: What Dictates the Structure of Communities? 201
8.6 SUMMARY 202
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 203
REFERENCES 203
9: PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY, STRUCTURE, AND STABILITY 207
9.1 INTRODUCTION 207
9.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF DIVERSITY AND STABILITY 208
9.2.1 The Intuitive Years 208
9.2.2 The Limits to Diversity 210
9.2.3 Some Current and Future Considerations: Food Webs Across Space and Time 217
REFERENCES 221
10: DIVERSITY AND STABILITY: THEORIES, MODELS, AND DATA 225
10.1 INTRODUCTION 225
10.2 WHY CARE ABOUT THEORY CHANGE? 226
10.3 KNOWLEDGE IN ECOLOGY 228
10.4 THEORY CHANGE IN COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 230
10.5 THEORY CHANGE, ABATED 232
REFERENCES 233
PART IV: HISTORICAL REFLECTION 235
11: ECOLOGY’S LEGACY FROM ROBERT MacARTHUR 237
11.1 INTRODUCTION 237
11.2 THE LEGACY 238
11.3 “POPULATION BIOLOGY” OF MacARTHUR CITATIONS 241
11.4 ERIC’S REFLECTIONS 244
11.5 HENRY’S REVERIE 247
11.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS 250
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 252
REFERENCES 252
PART V: EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY 257
12: ON THE INTEGRATION OF COMMUNITY ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES AND CURRENT PROSPECTS 259
12.1 INTRODUCTION 259
12.2 BACKGROUND REFLECTIONS 260
12.3 A CAPSULE HISTORY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EVOLUTION AND COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 266
12.4 WHAT DERAILED THE FUSION OF EVOLUTION AND COMMUNITY ECOLOGY? 274
12.5 POINTERS TO THE FUTURE 277
12.5.1 Evolution and Ecology at Commensurate Timescales 280
12.5.2 Final Thoughts on the Interplay of Ecology and Evolution 284
12.6 CONCLUSIONS 287
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 288
REFERENCES 288
13: MODELLING THE ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE: DÉJÀ VU OR SOMETHING NEW? 297
13.1 INTRODUCTION 297
13.2 THEORETICAL ECOLOGY 298
13.3 THEORETICAL EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY 301
13.3.1 Classical Population Genetics 301
13.3.2 Optimization and Game Theory 304
13.4 THEORETICAL EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY 305
13.4.1 Single-Locus Theory 306
13.4.2 Quantitative-Genetic Theory 308
13.4.3 Game Theory 313
13.4.4 Adaptive Dynamics 321
13.5 WHERE DO WE STAND? WHERE DO WE GO? IS ANYTHING NEW? 326
13.5.1 Future Empirical Directions 326
13.5.2 Future Theoretical Directions 327
13.5.3 Conclusions: Déjà Vu or Something New? 329
REFERENCES 330
14: THE ELUSIVE SYNTHESIS 335
14.1 SOURCE AND CONSEQUENCE LAWS 335
14.2 THE LIMITS OF EQUILIBRIUM 338
14.2.1 The Grain Problem 339
14.4.2 Organisms Do Not Merely Experience Environments, They Change Them 340
14.2.3 Ecological Agents 341
14.3 THE GRAIN PROBLEM AND ITS MACROECOLOGICAL SOLUTION 342
14.4 NICHE CONSTRUCTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 344
14.5 THE EMERGENT PROPERTY HYPOTHESIS 347
REFERENCES 352
PART VI: ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY 355
15: THE LOSS OF NARRATIVE 357
15.1 INTRODUCTION 357
15.1.1 The History of the Problem 362
15.1.2 A Postmodern View of Ecology 363
15.1.3 Analogy in Ecology 365
15.2 THE PARADIGM OF NARRATIVE 366
15.2.1 A History of the Ecosystem Paradigm 366
15.2.2 Scientific Paradigms Versus Humanitarian Commonplaces 367
15.2.3 Paradigms, Complexity, and Narratives 370
15.3 HIGHER DIMENSIONALITY IN NARRATIVES 374
15.3.1 Essences, Models, and Observables 374
15.3.2 Dimensions of Narratives 375
15.3.3 The Observer-Observation Complex 376
15.3.4 Dimensionality in Science 378
15.4 THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF NARRATIVES 380
15.5 WHY IT MATTERS IN APPLIED SYSTEMS 384
15.6 THE POSTMODERN PARADIGM IN ECOLOGY 387
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 392
REFERENCES 392
16: ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT: CONTROL, UNCERTAINTY, AND UNDERSTANDING 395
16.1 INTRODUCTION 395
16.2 A HISTORY OF ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT 396
16.2.1 Forestry 396
16.2.2 Fisheries 397
16.2.3 Ecosystems and Ecological Management 399
16.3 A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT 401
16.3.1 Uncertainty 401
16.3.2 Controllability 403
16.4 CURRENT APPROACHES TO ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT 405
16.4.1 Adaptive Management 406
16.4.2 Resilience Building 407
16.4.3 Scenario Planning 408
16.5 FRONTIERS OF ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT 409
16.5.1 An Approach: Resilience Analysis 410
16.6 CONCLUSIONS 414
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 415
REFERENCES 415
17: IS ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT A POSTMODERN SCIENCE? 421
17.1 INTRODUCTION 421
17.2 ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY: CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 422
17.2.1 Ambiguities of the Ecosystem Concept 422
17.2.2 The Classical Tradition of Ecosystem Ecology 424
17.2.3 The Rise, Fall, and Reemergence of the Classical Tradition 426
17.3 POST-NORMAL SCIENCE 430
17.3.1 Origins of the Term 430
17.3.2 Does Post-normal Imply Postmodern? 432
17.4 THE “PARADIGM OF NARRATIVE”: DEFENDING THE HOLLING FIGURE-EIGHT 433
17.5 THEORY CHANGE IN ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY: GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OR PARADIGM SHIFT? 436
17.6 CONCLUSION 437
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 438
REFERENCES 438
PART VII: CONCLUSION 441
18: KUHNIAN PARADIGMS LOST: EMBRACING THE PLURALISM OF ECOLOGICAL THEORY 443
18.1 KUHN AND BEYOND 444
18.2 PARADIGM SHIFTS IN ECOLOGICAL THEORY? 445
18.3 CONCLUDING REMARKS 450
REFERENCES 451
INDEX 453