TOWARD UNDERSTANDMG BCOSYSTEMS
6
is an empirical science. But when such a discovery is made the ecologist
should ask critically: why should it be so? Or as Odum (1959) has stated,
“It is important to discover by means of observation, analysis, and
experiment which factors are ‘operationally significant’ and to determine how these factors bring about their effects on the individual, population or community as the case may be”.
11. ECOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
What, are some of the questions asked by the plant ecologist? There
are many. Only a few of them are set forth here.
1. How does the environment influence an individual plant of a given
species at any stage of its life history? How are plant and environment coupled together?
2. What are the ecologically significant genotypic and phenotypic
properties of a plant? These may be largely physiological properties.
3. Precisely how does competition for environmental factors affect
the distribution and densities of species and individuals within a
plant community?
4. How does plant succession proceed? What determines the rate of
plant succession?
5. What is the productivity of a given site with certain edaphic and
climatic characteristics without management by man? To what
extent ie this determined by the species available to it?
The objective here is to outline one method for dealing with these
questions; it is a methodology which is quantitative and analytical and
involves all of science. Detailed answers to some of the above questions
are far too complex to be given at the present time. The ecological
literature is characterized by generalities relating to niche differentiation and environmental gradients; generalities which are useful and
indeed meaningful. Some will say one cannot hope to get specific or
detailed answers to these questions. Surely many of the significant concepts are well understood concerning plant communities-the complexity and diversity of species, the methods of dispersal, the plasticity
of natural communities to climatic change, the variation of species composition within a community with soil type and moisture availability,
the continuum of plant communities, and the lack of sharp boundaries
in time and space of plant associations. Yet beyond these general
relationships, which are important, the ecologist must achieve specifio
detailed answers involving cawe and effect.
6
is an empirical science. But when such a discovery is made the ecologist
should ask critically: why should it be so? Or as Odum (1959) has stated,
“It is important to discover by means of observation, analysis, and
experiment which factors are ‘operationally significant’ and to determine how these factors bring about their effects on the individual, population or community as the case may be”.
11. ECOLOGICAL QUESTIONS
What, are some of the questions asked by the plant ecologist? There
are many. Only a few of them are set forth here.
1. How does the environment influence an individual plant of a given
species at any stage of its life history? How are plant and environment coupled together?
2. What are the ecologically significant genotypic and phenotypic
properties of a plant? These may be largely physiological properties.
3. Precisely how does competition for environmental factors affect
the distribution and densities of species and individuals within a
plant community?
4. How does plant succession proceed? What determines the rate of
plant succession?
5. What is the productivity of a given site with certain edaphic and
climatic characteristics without management by man? To what
extent ie this determined by the species available to it?
The objective here is to outline one method for dealing with these
questions; it is a methodology which is quantitative and analytical and
involves all of science. Detailed answers to some of the above questions
are far too complex to be given at the present time. The ecological
literature is characterized by generalities relating to niche differentiation and environmental gradients; generalities which are useful and
indeed meaningful. Some will say one cannot hope to get specific or
detailed answers to these questions. Surely many of the significant concepts are well understood concerning plant communities-the complexity and diversity of species, the methods of dispersal, the plasticity
of natural communities to climatic change, the variation of species composition within a community with soil type and moisture availability,
the continuum of plant communities, and the lack of sharp boundaries
in time and space of plant associations. Yet beyond these general
relationships, which are important, the ecologist must achieve specifio
detailed answers involving cawe and effect.