Abstract
Ecological communities, I argue, are objective units of nature if theyhave structure that regulates their membership. Evidence of suchstructure in contemporary ecology is scant, but the palaeoecologicalphenomenon of co-ordinated stasis is a prima facie example ofinternal regulation. I argue that no individualist attempts to explainaway the appearance of internal regulation succeeds. But no internalistmodel is fully satisfactory, either, in explaining the contrast betweenpre and post Pleistocene ecology.
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Sterelny, K. The Reality of Ecological Assemblages: A Palaeo-ecological Puzzle. Biology & Philosophy 16, 437–461 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011972529013
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011972529013