4
DAVID M. GATES
jutting into the atmosphere from plants and creating high electric fields?
How many botanists concerned with growth and differentiation have
wondered at the influence of these strong electric fields on the tissue at
the apical meristem? Strong electric charges are constantly being transferred from one portion of the earth's surface to another at any moment
and these great electric fields are a part of any eoosystem.
All of classical physics was available to the ecologist 40 years ago for
direct application towards understanding some ecological problems. Yet
the ecologist failed to realize that in doing ecology he had to work it8 a
physicist as well as to work as a botanist or zoologist. It was not sufficient to talk of physical phenomena in qualitative terms, but it was
essential to do so in quantitative ways using the laws and methods discovered by physicists. The dichotomy which existed between biology
and physical science retarded the advancement of ecological understanding by several decades. The lack of understanding of biology by
the physicist did not retard physics in the least. An ecologist must be a
whole scientist and learn well the laws of physics and chemistry, learn
to use mathematics as a tool, and carry these disciplines into every
facet of biological research. During these decades when the ecologist
failed to fully avail himself of physical principles he waa accumulating
an enormous amount of deacriptive information concerning various
ecosystems. Unfortunately, because of the lack of understanding fully
the physical principles, certain observations within ecosystems were
omitted and some measurements taken had relatively little value. Large
amounts of environmental data concerning certain ecosystems accumulated on the shelves of the investigator and little was done with it except
to obtain mean weekly or monthly temperatures, maxima or minima,
hours of sunshine, or wind speeds removed from the level of the plants
or animals. The first basic question any ecologist should ask is what will
he do with masses of data if he takes it? Why does he feel that he must
sample continuously in time when he obviously cannot do so in space?
Why does the ecologist use good judgment when sampling the species
of the plant or animal community and poor judgment when sampling
the environment? Perhaps the fundamental problem has to do with the
questions he is asking of himself concerning the ecosystem. If the
ecologist only wishes to describe the ecosystem perhaps he will collect
great masses of biological and environmental data without really knowing what to do with it, except to publish it. Maybe he will then begin to
work out multiple regressions in the hope that correlations will reveal
some fundamental law of the natural community. Perhaps he will discover that the outbreak of a certain plant pathogen is strongly correlated with high humidity and warm air temperatures. This could be
useful information and would certainly strengthen his case that ecology
DAVID M. GATES
jutting into the atmosphere from plants and creating high electric fields?
How many botanists concerned with growth and differentiation have
wondered at the influence of these strong electric fields on the tissue at
the apical meristem? Strong electric charges are constantly being transferred from one portion of the earth's surface to another at any moment
and these great electric fields are a part of any eoosystem.
All of classical physics was available to the ecologist 40 years ago for
direct application towards understanding some ecological problems. Yet
the ecologist failed to realize that in doing ecology he had to work it8 a
physicist as well as to work as a botanist or zoologist. It was not sufficient to talk of physical phenomena in qualitative terms, but it was
essential to do so in quantitative ways using the laws and methods discovered by physicists. The dichotomy which existed between biology
and physical science retarded the advancement of ecological understanding by several decades. The lack of understanding of biology by
the physicist did not retard physics in the least. An ecologist must be a
whole scientist and learn well the laws of physics and chemistry, learn
to use mathematics as a tool, and carry these disciplines into every
facet of biological research. During these decades when the ecologist
failed to fully avail himself of physical principles he waa accumulating
an enormous amount of deacriptive information concerning various
ecosystems. Unfortunately, because of the lack of understanding fully
the physical principles, certain observations within ecosystems were
omitted and some measurements taken had relatively little value. Large
amounts of environmental data concerning certain ecosystems accumulated on the shelves of the investigator and little was done with it except
to obtain mean weekly or monthly temperatures, maxima or minima,
hours of sunshine, or wind speeds removed from the level of the plants
or animals. The first basic question any ecologist should ask is what will
he do with masses of data if he takes it? Why does he feel that he must
sample continuously in time when he obviously cannot do so in space?
Why does the ecologist use good judgment when sampling the species
of the plant or animal community and poor judgment when sampling
the environment? Perhaps the fundamental problem has to do with the
questions he is asking of himself concerning the ecosystem. If the
ecologist only wishes to describe the ecosystem perhaps he will collect
great masses of biological and environmental data without really knowing what to do with it, except to publish it. Maybe he will then begin to
work out multiple regressions in the hope that correlations will reveal
some fundamental law of the natural community. Perhaps he will discover that the outbreak of a certain plant pathogen is strongly correlated with high humidity and warm air temperatures. This could be
useful information and would certainly strengthen his case that ecology