Skip to main content

The Role of Theoretical Concepts in Understanding the Ecological Theatre: A Case Study on Island Biogeography

  • Chapter
Conceptual Issues in Ecology

Abstract

To do science means to construct theories and to adopt theoretical concepts in order to explain facts of nature (or man); if the world were what it looks like, science would be unnecessary. But how are the prevailing concepts in science in general, or in ecology in particular, vindicated?

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abbott, I .: 1980, ‘Theories dealing with the ecology of landbirds on islands’, Adv. Ecol. Research 11, 329–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abele, L. G. and E. F. Connor: 1979, ‘Application of island biogeography to refuge design: making the right decision for the wrong reasons’, in R. M. Linn (ed.), Proc. First Conf. on Scientific Research in the National Parks, U.S. Dept. of Interior, National Park Service Transactions and Proceeding Series 5, pp. 89–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrhenius, O.: 1921, ‘Species and area’, J. Ecol 9, 95–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, W.: 1921, ‘Växtgeografiska studier i Barösund skargard’, Acta Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 49, 1–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunge, M.: 1973, Method, Model and Matter, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunge, M.: 1979, Causality and Modern Science, Third Revised Edition, Dover, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Case, T. J., M. E. Gilpin and J. M. Diamond: 1979, ‘Overexploitation, interference competition, and excess density compensation in insular faunas’, Amer. Natur. 113, 843–854.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connor, E. F. and E. D. McCoy: 1979, ‘The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship’, Amer. Natur. 113, 791–833.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. M.: 1972, ‘Biogeographic kinetics: estimation of relaxation times for avifaunas of southwest Pacific islands’, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 69, 3199–3203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. M.: 1975a, ‘Assembly of species communities’, in M. L. Cody and J. M. Diamond (eds.), Ecology and Evolution of Communities, Belknap-Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp. 342–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. M.: 1975b, The island dilemma: Lessons of modern biogeographic studies for the design of natural reserves’, Biol. Conservation 7, 129–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. M. and R. M. May: 1976, ‘Island biogeography and the design of natural reserves’, in R. M. May (ed.), Theoretical Ecology. Principles and Applications, Black well, Oxford, pp. 163–186.

    Google Scholar 

  • Einstein, A .: 1949, ‘Autobiographical notes’, in P. A. Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist, The Library of Living Philosophers, Open Court, La Salle, 111., pp. 1–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elton, C. S.: 1958, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants, Methuen, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels, F.: 1940, Dialectics of Nature, International Publishers, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faeth, S. H. and E. C. Connor: 1979, ‘Supersaturated and relaxing island faunas: a critique of the species-area relationship’, Journal of Biogeography 6, 311–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feyerabend, P.: 1978, Against Method. Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge, Verso, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, R. A., A. S. Corbet and C. B. Williams: 1943, ‘The relation between the number of species and the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population’, J. Anim. Ecol 12, 42–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fretwell, S. D.: 1972, Populations in a Seasonal Environment, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghiselin, M. T .: 1969, The Triumph of the Darwinian Method, Univ. of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, F. S.: 1980, ‘The equilibrium theory of biogeography: fact or fiction?’, Journal of Biogeography 7, 209–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gleason, H. A .: 1922, ‘On the relation between species and area’,Ecology 3, 158–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, N.: 1977, The Structure of Appearance, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gorman, M. L.: 1978, Island Ecology, Chapman and Hall, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grene, M.: 1980, ‘A note on Simberloff’s ℌSuccession of paradigms in ecology” ’, Synthese 43, 41–45. Reprinted in the present collection.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haila, Y. and O. Järvinen: 1981, ‘The underexploited potential of quantitative bird censuses in insular ecology’, Studies in Avian Biology 6, 559–565.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haila, Y., O. Jarvinen and R. A. Vaisanen: 1979, ‘Effect of mainland population changes on the terrestrial bird fauna of a northern island’, Ornis Scandinavica 10, 48–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haila, Y., I. Hanski, O. Järvinen and E. Ranta: 1981, ‘Insular biogeography: a northern European perspective’, Acta Oecologica (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haldane, J. B. S.: 1962, ‘A parade of ignorance’, J. Genet. 58, 138–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, G. E.: 1978, An Introduction to Population Ecology, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, Conn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ilyenkov, E. V.: 1977a, ‘The concept of the ideal’, in Philosophy in the USSR. Problems of Dialectical Materialism, Progress, Moscow, pp. 81–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ilyenkov, E. V.: 1977b, Dialectical Logic. Essays on Its History and Theory, Progress, Moscow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Järvinen, O .: 1982, ‘Conservation of endangered plant populations: single large or several small reserves?’, Oikos 38 (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Järvinen, O. and Y. Haila: 1982, ‘Assembly of land bird communities on northern islands: a quantitative analysis of insular impoverishment’, in D. Strong, D. Simberloff and L. Abele (eds.), Ecological Communities: Conceptual Issues and the Evidence, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton (in press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kedrow, B. M.: 1979, Friedrich Engels über die Dialektik der Naturwissenschaften, Dietz Verlag, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koyre, A.: 1957, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe, John Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krajewski, W.: 1977, Correspondence Principle and the Growth of Knowledge, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. S.: 1970, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Second Edition, Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R .: 1968, Evolution in Changing Environments, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin, R. C.: 1965, ‘Selection for colonizing ability’, in H. G. Baker and G. L. Stebbins (eds.), The Genetics of Colonizing Species, Academic Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotka, A. J.: 1956, Elements of Mathematical Biology, Dover, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, J. F. and N. K. Johnson: 1974, Turnover and equilibrium in insular avifaunas, with special reference to the California Channel Islands’, Condor 76, 370–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R. H. and E. O. Wilson: 1967, The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackie, J. L .: 1974, The Cement of the Universe. A Study of Causation, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, R. M.: 1975, ‘Patterns of species abundance and diversity’, in M. L. Cody and J. M. Diamond (eds.), Ecology and Evolution of Communities, Belknap-Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp. 81–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J.: 1974, Models in Ecology, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, E.: 1959, ‘Typological versus population thinking’, in Evolution and Anthropology: a Centennial Appraisal, The Anthropological Society of Washington, Washington D.C., pp. 409–412.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, R. P .: 1980, ‘The Background and Some Current Problems of Theoretical Ecology’, Synthese 43, 195–255. Reprinted in the present collection.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagel, E.: 1961, The Structure of Science, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmgren, A.: 1917, ‘Studier över löfängsrområdena på Åland. III. Statistisk under-sökning af Floran’, Acta Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 42, 475–634. Translated into German: 1922, ‘Über Artenzahl und Areal sowie über die Konstitution der Vegeta-tion. Eine vegetationsstatistische Untersuchung’, Acta Forestalia Fennica 22, 1–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmgren, A .: 1929, ‘Chance as an element in plant geography’, Proc. Int. Congr. Plant. Sci. (Ithaca, New York, August 16–23, 1926 ), Vol. I, pp. 591–602.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, R. H.: 1976, ‘Tautology in evolution and ecology’, Amer. Natur. 110, 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pianka, E. R.: 1970, ‘On r- and K-selection’, Amer. Natur. 104, 592–597.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R.: 1959, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Hutchinson & Co., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. R.: 1963, Conjectures and Refutations. The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, F. W.: 1948, ‘The commonness and rarity of species’, Ecology 29, 254–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, F. W.: 1962, ‘The canonical distribution of commonness and rarity’, Ecology 43, 185–215 and 410–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, F. W.: 1980, ‘Noncanonical distributions of commonness and rarity’, Ecology 61, 88–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruben, P .: 1978, Dialektik und Arbeit der Philosophie, Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Köln.

    Google Scholar 

  • Safriel, U. N. and U. Ritte: 1980, ‘Criteria for the identification of potential colonizers’, Biol. J. Linnean Soc. 13, 287–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandkühler, H. J.: 1973, Praxis und Geschichtsbewusstsein. Studie zur materialistischen Dialektik, Erkenntnistheorie und Hermeneutik, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sauer, J. D.: 1969, ‘Oceanic islands and biogeographic theory’, Geogr. Rev. 59, 582–593.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S.: 1969, ‘Experimental zoogeography of islands. A model for insular colonization’,Ecology 50, 296–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S.: 1974, ‘Equilibrium theory of island biogeography and ecology’, Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 5, 161–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S.: 1976, ‘The significance of species turnover and the status of equilibrium island biogeography’, Science 194, 572–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S.: 1980, ‘A succession of paradigms in ecology: Essentialism to material¬ism and probabilism’, Synthese 43, 3–39. Reprinted in the present collection.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S.: 1981, ‘Community effects of introduced species’, in Biotic Crises in Ecological and Evolutionary Time, Academic Press, New York, pp. 53–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simberloff, D. S. and L. G. Abele: 1976, ‘Island biogeographic theory and conservation practice’,Science 191, 285–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A.: 1977, Models of Discovery, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slud, P .: 1976, ‘Geographic and climatic relationships of avifaunas with special reference to comparative distribution in the Neotropics’, Smithson. Contrib. Zool. 212.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S. C.: 1976, ‘Life history tactics: A review of the ideas’, Quart. Rev. Biol. 51, 3–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S. C.: 1977, ‘The evolution of life history traits’, Ann. Rev. Ecol Syst. 8, 145–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S. C.: 1980, ‘A new view of life-history evolution’, Oikos 35, 266–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suppe, F .: 1977, ‘Afterword’, in F. Suppe (ed.), The Structure of Scientific Theories, 2nd Edition, Univ. Illinois Press, Urbans, pp. 617–730.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Valen, L.: 1976, ‘Domains, deduction, the predictive method, and Darwin’, Evol. Theory 1, 231–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuilleumier, F.: 1975, ‘Zoogeography’, in D. S. Farner and J. R. King (eds.), Avian Biology 5, Academic Press, New York, pp. 421–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiens, J. A.: 1981, ‘Scale problems in avian censusing’, Studies in Avian Biology 6, pp. 513–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox, B. A.: 1978, ‘Supersaturated island faunas: a species-age relationship for lizards on post-Pleistocene land-bridge islands’, Science 199, 996–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright, S. J.: 1980, ‘Density compensation in island avifaunas’, Oecologia 45, 385–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Haila, Y., Järvinen, O. (1982). The Role of Theoretical Concepts in Understanding the Ecological Theatre: A Case Study on Island Biogeography. In: Saarinen, E. (eds) Conceptual Issues in Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7796-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7796-9_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1391-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-7796-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics