xxvi
P R E FA C E
radically critical positions as those summarized by Shrader-Frechette and
McCoy (1993), we nevertheless feel that ecology, like any other discipline in
the natural sciences, can only benefit from the steadily growing scientific rigor
in the study of real cases.
Animal ecology, in particular, is the field in which we should strive for
more scrupulous application of a scientifically rigorous methodology. Animal
populations are mobile in space, they have a strong stochastic demographic
component, they are involved in complex interspecific and intraspecific interactions and interactions with the abiotic environment, and they have a great
environmental variance. Thus it has been more difficult to apply scientific
approaches and rigorous experimental designs to them than in other scientific
endeavors. Nonetheless, there is no good justification for studying animal populations without greater discipline.
These intrinsic difficulties in studying animal ecology underlie many of the
weaknesses in the research methodologies available to researchers today. Certainly the quality of the research is sometimes limited by logistic and environmental adversities, by the problems of translating into practice an experimental design worked out at the drawing board, by deliberately limited samples,
and by other problems that can contribute to weakening the methodological
rigor of a study and therefore the validity of its results. As the methods and
results of animal ecology are often applied to conservation, the practical consequences of misused techniques can mislead the implementation of conservation measures. For many species, such mistakes can have serious consequences.
This book springs from the recurring frustration we, the editors, sometimes have felt while doing our work as researchers and teachers. The scientific
ecological literature (as well as a good bit of other literature) is full of publications based on false assumptions and methodological errors. Although the
number of methodological errors and omissions seems to be inversely and
exponentially proportional to a journal’s quality, even the most scrupulous editors of the best scientific journals sometimes miss mistakes. Although the most
circumspect researchers have the critical ability to recognize and respond to the
errors, often they do not respond, and such critique is almost totally absent
among students. Teaching students how to be critical is perhaps the most difficult and most noble objective of the teaching profession, but there has never
been a text in the field of animal ecology to help us in this task. Excellent handbooks and textbooks of techniques and methods are available (e.g., Krebs
1999; Bookhout 1994) in which the techniques are well described and examples are used to illustrate when and how to apply them. Many of these techniques are well known and robust in their applications. However, several
P R E FA C E
radically critical positions as those summarized by Shrader-Frechette and
McCoy (1993), we nevertheless feel that ecology, like any other discipline in
the natural sciences, can only benefit from the steadily growing scientific rigor
in the study of real cases.
Animal ecology, in particular, is the field in which we should strive for
more scrupulous application of a scientifically rigorous methodology. Animal
populations are mobile in space, they have a strong stochastic demographic
component, they are involved in complex interspecific and intraspecific interactions and interactions with the abiotic environment, and they have a great
environmental variance. Thus it has been more difficult to apply scientific
approaches and rigorous experimental designs to them than in other scientific
endeavors. Nonetheless, there is no good justification for studying animal populations without greater discipline.
These intrinsic difficulties in studying animal ecology underlie many of the
weaknesses in the research methodologies available to researchers today. Certainly the quality of the research is sometimes limited by logistic and environmental adversities, by the problems of translating into practice an experimental design worked out at the drawing board, by deliberately limited samples,
and by other problems that can contribute to weakening the methodological
rigor of a study and therefore the validity of its results. As the methods and
results of animal ecology are often applied to conservation, the practical consequences of misused techniques can mislead the implementation of conservation measures. For many species, such mistakes can have serious consequences.
This book springs from the recurring frustration we, the editors, sometimes have felt while doing our work as researchers and teachers. The scientific
ecological literature (as well as a good bit of other literature) is full of publications based on false assumptions and methodological errors. Although the
number of methodological errors and omissions seems to be inversely and
exponentially proportional to a journal’s quality, even the most scrupulous editors of the best scientific journals sometimes miss mistakes. Although the most
circumspect researchers have the critical ability to recognize and respond to the
errors, often they do not respond, and such critique is almost totally absent
among students. Teaching students how to be critical is perhaps the most difficult and most noble objective of the teaching profession, but there has never
been a text in the field of animal ecology to help us in this task. Excellent handbooks and textbooks of techniques and methods are available (e.g., Krebs
1999; Bookhout 1994) in which the techniques are well described and examples are used to illustrate when and how to apply them. Many of these techniques are well known and robust in their applications. However, several