The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000In the 1890s, several initiatives in American botany converged. The creation of new institutions, such as the New York Botanical Garden, coincided with radical reforms in taxonomic practice and the emergence of an experimental program of research on evolutionary problems. Sharon Kingsland explores how these changes gave impetus to the new field of ecology that was defined at exactly this time. She argues that the creation of institutions and research laboratories, coupled with new intellectual directions in science, were crucial to the development of ecology as a discipline in the United States. The main concern of ecology - the relationship between organisms and environment - was central to scientific studies aimed at understanding and controlling the evolutionary process. Kingsland considers the evolutionary context in which ecology arose, especially neo-Lamarckian ideas and the new mutation theory, and explores the relationship between scientific research and broader theories about social progress and the evolution of human civilization. By midcentury, American ecologists were leading the rapid development of ecosystem ecology. and society in the postwar context, foreshadowing the environmental critiques of the 1960s. As the ecosystem concept evolved, so too did debates about how human ecology should be incorporated into the biological sciences. Kingsland concludes with an examination of ecology in the modern urban environment, reflecting on how scientists are now being challenged to produce innovative responses to pressing problems. The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000 offers an innovative study not only of the scientific landscape in turn-of-the-century America, but of current questions in ecological science. |
Contents
Entrepreneurs of Science | 17 |
A Botanical Revolution | 40 |
Big Science | 62 |
Science in a Changing Land | 96 |
Visioning Ecology | 129 |
Science History and Progress | 155 |
A Subversive Science? | 179 |
Defining the Ecosystem | 206 |
New Frontiers | 232 |
Expanding the Dialogue | 258 |
Essay on Sources | 303 |
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Common terms and phrases
adaptation agricultural American botany analysis approach areas argued Asa Gray Baltimore biology botanists Britton Carnegie Institution century challenge changes Charles Charles Bessey Clements Clements's climate conservation created culture cycles Desert Laboratory discipline discussion ecol ecological research ecologists ecosys ecosystem concept ecosystem ecology Ecosystem Study Ellsworth Huntington energy environment environmental equilibrium Eugene Eugene Odum European evolution evolutionary experimental explored forest Frederic Clements geographic George Perkins Marsh Gleason goal grasslands Greene Henry history of ecology Hugo de Vries human ecology human impact human-centered Huntington Ibid idea important John land landscape LTER MacDougal's Marsh modern mutation theory natural history needed nomenclature Odum organism park perspective physiological plants population problems processes projects questions quote reform region relationship role Rusby Sauer scientific scientists social society species stability Systems Ecology Tansley thought tion Torrey Botanical Club Tucson University Press Urban Ecosystems vegetation watershed York Botanical Garden
References to this book
Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of American ... Michael Egan Limited preview - 2009 |