The Ecology of Place

Contributions of Place-Based Research to Ecological Understanding

Ian Billick, Mary V. Price, Ian Billick, Mary V. Price

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780226050447
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Wissenschaft Allgemein

Ecologists can spend a lifetime researching a small patch of the earth, studying the interactions between organisms and the environment, and exploring the roles those interactions play in determining distribution, abundance, and evolutionary change. With so few ecologists and so many systems to study, generalizations are essential. But how do you extrapolate knowledge about a well-studied area and apply it elsewhere?Through a range of original essays written by eminent ecologists and naturalists, The Ecology of Place explores how place-focused research yields exportable general knowledge as well as practical local knowledge, and how society can facilitate ecological understanding by investing in field sites, place-centered databases, interdisciplinary collaborations, and field-oriented education programs that emphasize natural history. This unique patchwork of case-study narratives, philosophical musings, and historical analyses is tied together with commentaries from editors Ian Billick and Mary Price that develop and synthesize common threads. The result is a unique volume rich with all-too-rare insights into how science is actually done, as told by scientists themselves.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• 1. The Ecology of Place
• Part 1. The Imprint of Place on Ecology and Ecologists
• Part 2. The Idiosyncrasy of Place: Challenges and Opportunities
• Part 3. Building an Understanding of Place
• Part 4. The Interaction between Local and General Understanding
• Part 5. Building the Capacity for Place-Based Research
• Notes
• List of Contributors
• Index