Community Ecology
History of community ecology
Outline:
1. History of community ecology from pre 1700s to today
A. pre-1700s: an unordered and mystical world
B. 18th century: descriptive (natural history) studies
C. 19th century: "ecology" coined, Darwinism
D. late 19th/early 20th centuries: self-awareness of ecology, "community" coined
E. 20th century: Clements/Gleason succession debate, contributions from MacArthur
2. Early emphasis was on pattern; more recent research has explored process
Terms/people:
Haeckel
von Humboldt
Darwin
Forbes
Möbius
Cowles
Lack
superorganism
uniformitarianism (Lyell)
Clements
Gleason
Elton
individualistic
MacArthur
Hutchinson
Shelford
oikos
Ecology has proceeded rather like a relay race, with each “leg” of the race differing from others
in terms of pace, trajectory, and influence. The first major leg of ecology came from the age of
exploration, with repeated patterns of species co-occurrences being noted. The second leg of
ecology’s history is from late 19th-century/early 20th-century physiologists who tried to
determine form as a consequence of environment. The third leg came from an emphasis on
biotic interactions (especially competition). The fourth leg witnessed a greater emphasis on
discerning process and not merely documenting pattern, comparing patterns with null models,
and being skeptical of competition as the main driving force behind communities. Some may
argue that we are now in the fifth leg, focusing on the importance of taking scale into account,
applying community ecology to conservation, and branching out into new directions.
Roots of CE: natural history, plant geography
-"balance of nature"
-3 pathways of development and focus:
1. Response physiology - physiological limitation of plants and animals by environmental factors
- Haeckel, later Cowles
2. An evolutionary theme - Darwin
3. Plant geography - focus on mapping associations and vegetation formations (what we would
now call communities) - von Humboldt
pre 18th century:
-biology largely unordered (pre-Linnaeus)
-world still highly mystical
18th century:
-natural history - descriptive
-order/progress (influenced by the Church)
-equilibrium
-Linnaeus - orderly scientific nomenclature (hierarchical)
-Buffon - naturalist, first described how environment shapes animals
So, prior to 19th century: emphasis was on describing patterns.
19th century: early developments were in Europe
-Alexander von Humboldt 1807 -early 1830's: Charles Lyell - principle of uniformitarianism
-1838: P.F. Verhulst developed formula for population growth when resources are limiting
-1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species: scientific revolution from natural selection
-Ernst Haeckel 1866 late 19th/early 20th centuries:
-crystallization of ecology, self-awareness of ecology
-Karl Möbius 1877 (translated in 1883) -Stephen A. Forbes 1887 -Johannes Eugenius Bulow Warming 1896 - "Oecology of plants: an introduction to the study of
plant communities" - first to ask coherent questions that still dominate community studies: 1.
Why does each species have its own habitat? 2. How do species congregate to form characteristic
communities? - recognized importance of dominants and subdominants, adaptive value of lifeforms, effects of fire on community composition and succession, importance of phenology concluded that soil has more of an effect on vegetation than climate, and emphasized
temperature and moisture as prime climatic factors.
-Henry Chandler Cowles 1899 - U. Chicago, succession, stability; studies changes in plant
community on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan between 1898 and 1911. Emphasis on the
dynamic nature of vegetation.
20th century:
-Victor Shelford 1915 - U. Nebraska, first president of ESA (founded 1915); looked at animal
communities in the same manner that plant ecologists did
-Frederic Clements 1916, 1936 - U. Nebraska, one of the most influential ecologists
"superorganism" -Henry Gleason 1917, 1926 - IL Nat. Survey
Individualistic view of community structure -Clements vs. Gleason debate of whether a community is a definable unit vs. a level of
organization above that of populations in a given area
-Charles Elton 1927 - animal ecologist, niche, food webs; book Animal Ecology (1927) written
in a mere 85 days and is still in print
-David Lack 1940s – role of interspecific competition in shaping community structure
-1940-78 - G. Evelyn Hutchinson - limnologist and zoologist; niche; Ph.D. advisor for Robert
MacArthur
-1950s-1960s - Odum brothers (Howard Tom and Eugene P.) - begin ecosystem studies,
synthesize relatively new ideas on ecosystem ecology
-Robert H. MacArthur 1950s-60s - Hutchinson’s student; birds, very thoughtful and creative
ecologist who tragically died young (in 1972 at age 42) but who formulated/influenced current
thinking on competition, niche and habitat partitioning, biodiversity, food webs, extinction,
importance of evolutionary life history traits, conservation biology and reserve design, and other
topics; most influential ecologist in modern history
-influence of non-English-speakers (e.g. Vasily Dokuchaev)
-1968-1974 - International Biological Program (IBP) - $27 million spent on large-scale
ecology research projects; up to this time, very little money was spent on ecological research
-1980 - National Science Foundation (US) establishes Long-Term Ecological Research sites
(LTER)
Current approaches in community ecology:
1. Community classification, derived directly from the Clementsian view; in Europe this led to
rigid typological classification schemes, whereas in North America the emphasis was more on
quantitative approaches with more of a Gleasonian perspective.
2. The holistic community view of Clements mutated into the ecosystem/energy ideas of Eugene
Odum. But ecosystem ecology had its formal beginnings in the mid-1930's when Arthur Tansley
coined the term (in response to the excesses of a rigid Clementsian view). This, in turn, was
picked up by Raymond Lindeman, who developed the "trophic-dynamic aspect of ecology" (i.e.,
formalized the routes of nutrient and energy transfer). Ecosystem ecology later developed along
two pathways: systems ecology and biogeochemistry. Even today, ecosystem and community
ecology may be taught together as synecology, reflecting their shared history.
3. Meanwhile, the evolutionary foundation of Darwin influenced Charles Elton’s thinking about
ecological niches and adaptations of organisms to their environments. Elton and Gause (who
developed mathematical approaches to multi-species dynamics) in turn influenced G. Evelyn
Hutchinson and David Lack. Together, they affected the thinking of Robert MacArthur, who
championed a mathematical/theoretical approach to communities in the 1950’s and 60’s.
MacArthur’s influence is still pervasive through much of what community ecologists do today.
4. The individualistic approach of Gleason was the foundation of the thinking of the Australian
ecologists Harry Andrewartha and Charles Birch, whose 1954 book, The Distribution and
Abundance of Animals, established a framework for an individual-based approach to
communities.
There have been various attempts to define the most important concepts or central themes of
ecology. Here are what I believe to be the three central themes of contemporary community
ecology:
1. Ecological systems are variable in space and time (cf. the equilibrium/homogeneity paradigm).
2. Ecological patterns and processes are scale-dependent (cf. scale is irrelevant or too messy).
3. Ecological systems are open to external influences (cf. the closed-system paradigm).
Next time: ecology as a science, the scientific method, hypothesis-testing
References:
Gleason, H.A. 1926. The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club
53:7-26.
Golley, F.B. 1993. A History of the Ecosystem Concept in Ecology. Yale University Press, New
Haven, CT.
Hagen, J.B. 1989. Research perspectives and the anomalous status of modern ecology. Biology
and Philosophy 4:433-455.
Hagen, J.B. 1992. An Entangled Bank: The Origins of Ecosystem Ecology. Rutgers University
Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
McIntosh, R.P. 1985. The Background of Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
UK.
McIntosh, R.P. 1995. H.A. Gleason’s ‘individualistic concept’ and theory of animal
communities: a continuing controversy. Biological Reviews 70:317-357.
Odum, E.P. 1977. The emergence of ecology as a new integrative discipline. Science 195:12891293.
Sheail, J. 1987. Seventy-five Years in Ecology: The British Ecological Society. Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Oxford, UK.