Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Structure of the Two Ecological Paradigms

  • Published:
Acta Biotheoretica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ecological theory is built upon assumptions about the fundamental nature of organism-environment interactions. We argue that two mutually exclusive sets of such assumptions are available and that they have given rise to alternative approaches to studying ecology. The fundamentally different premises of these approaches render them irreconcilable with one another. In this paper, we present the first logical formalisation of these two paradigms.

The more widely-accepted approach - which we label the demographic paradigm - includes both population ecology and community ecology (synecology). Demographic ecology assumes that the environment is relatively stable and that biotic processes, governed predominantly by resource availability, are the most important of ecological and evolutionary influences. Moreover, ecological processes are assumed to translate into directional selection pressures that drive significant evolutionary change on a local scale through the process of optimisation.

Serious deficiencies in aspects of the demographic approach have been identified over the past few decades by various ecologists, including Gleason, Andrewartha and Birch, White, Den Boer, Strong, Simberloff, and others. Short-term evolutionary optimisation has also been seriously questioned.

The development of the alternative approach (autecology) has been subverted by the prominence of demographic ecology. Moreover, it has not been recognised that autecology is underpinned by robust principles and that they are independent of the underlying demographic principles. Components of the autecological approach have been developed to some extent, but they have not been integrated with ancillary fields of study. We therefore articulate the assumptions from which autecology is derived, and use this as a basis for integrating the various spheres of autecological research.

We add to the ongoing development of autecology by linking autecological understanding, in so far as it is developed, with the evolutionary justification for species' characteristics being stable in an environment that is continuously dynamic in space and time. The ecology of organisms is essentially an ongoing matching of their species-specific characteristics to the prevailing environmental factors and dynamics. We thus provide a consistent logic through the following subject areas; climate and climate change, spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity and dynamic theory, physiology, behaviour, migration, and evolution. We demonstrate why adaptation cannot be an ongoing process, but takes place only when organisms are prevented, by incidental influences, from matching the overall dynamics of the environment.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Andrewartha, H.G. and L.C. Birch (1984). The Ecological Web: More on the Distribution and Abundance of Animals. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beerling, D.J. and F.I. Woodward (1995). Palaeo-ecophysiological perspectives on plant responses to global changes. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11: 20–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beintema, A.J. (1995). Fledging success of wader chicks, estimated from ringing data. Ringing and Migration 16: 129–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, K.D. (1997). Evolution and Ecology. The Pace of Life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brady, R.H. (1982). Dogma and doubt. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 17: 79–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burton, J.F. (1995). Birds and Climate Change. Christopher Helm, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, G. L. (1993). A reaffirmation of Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of small animals? In: D.R. Lees and D. Edwards (eds), Evolutionary Patterns and Processes, pp. 229–249. Academic Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, L.W. (1987). The Evolution of Individuality. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colwell, R.K. (1986). Community biology and sexual selection: lessons from hummingbird flower mites. In: J. Diamond and T.J. Case (eds), Community Ecology, pp. 406–424. Harper and Row, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coope, G.R. (1986). The invasion and colonisation of the North Altlantic islands: A palaeoecological solution to a biogeographic problem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B 314: 619–635.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. John Murray, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M.B. (1981). Quaternary history and the stability of forest communities. In: D.C. West, H.H. Shugart and D.B. Botkin (eds), Forest succession, pp. 132–153. Springer, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeAngelis, D.L. and L.J. Gross (eds.) (1992). Individual-based Models and Approaches in Ecology: Populations, Communities and Ecosystems. Chapman and Hall, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Den Boer, P.J. (1968). Spreading of risk and stabilization of animal numbers. Acta Biotheoretica 18: 165–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Den Boer, P.J. and J. Reddingius (1996). Regulation and Stabilization Paradigms in Population Ecology. Chapman and Hall, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dingle, H. (1996). Migration: the Biology of Life on the Move. Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky, T. (1937). Genetics and the Origin of Species. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge, N. (1989). Macroevolutionary Dynamics: Species, Niches, and Adaptive Peaks. McGraw-Hill, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge, N. and S.J. Gould (1972). Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. In: T.J.M. Schopf (ed.), Models in Paleontology, pp. 82–115. Freeman, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, S.A. (1994). Quaternary Insects and their Environments. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feder, J.L., S.H. Berlocher and S.B. Opp (1998). Sympatric host-race formation and speciation in Rhagoletis (Diptera: Tephritidae): a tale of two species for Charles D. In: S. Mopper and S.Y. Strauss (eds), Genetic Structure and Local Adaptation in Natural Insect Populations. Effects of Ecology, Life History, and Behavior, pp. 408–441. Chapman & Hall, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, E.B. (1964). Ecological Genetics. Methuen, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, M.J. (1982). The Changing Climate. Allen and Unwin, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frazetta, T.H. (1975). Complex Adaptations in Evolving Populations. Sinauer, Sunderland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghilarov, M. (1959). Die Gesetzmaessigkeiten der zonalen Verbreitung schaedlicher Bodeninsekten im Europaeischer Teile der UdSSR. 4 Internationaler Pflanzenschutzkongress, Hamburg 1957, 1: 831–836.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilpin, M. and I. Hanski (eds.) (1991). Metapopulation Dynamics: Empirical and Theoretical Investigations. Academic Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfray, H.C.J. (1994). Parasitoids: their Behavioral and Evolutionary Ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfray, H.C.J. and J.K. Waage (1991). Predictive modelling in biological control: the mango mealy bug (Rastrococcus invadens) and its parasitoids. Journal of Applied Ecology 28: 434–453.

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfray, H.C.J. and M.S. Hunter (1994). Heteronomous hyperparasitoids, sex ratios and adaptations: a reply. Ecological Entomology 19: 93–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, R.W. (1986). Response of mammalian communities to environmental changes during the Late Quaternary. In: J. Diamond and T.J. Case (eds), Community Ecology, pp. 300–313. Harper & Row, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, A. J. F., J. H. Miller, T.D. Suzuki, R.C. Lewontin and W.M. Gelbart (1993). An introduction to genetic analysis. (5th ed.). Freeman, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, B. P. and R. E. Moreau (1970). An atlas of speciation in African passerine birds. British Museum (Natural History), London.

  • Hanski, I. (1982). Dynamics of regional distribution: the core and satellite hypothesis. Oikos 38: 210–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, P.H. and M.D. Pagel (1991). The comparative method in evolutionary biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford. viii + 239 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassell, M. P. (1986). Parasitoids and population regulation. In: J. Waage and D. Greathead (eds), Insect parasitoids. 13th Symposium of the Royal Entomological Society of London, pp. 201–224. Academic Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1981). The evolutionary relevance of feeding habits of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae). Entomologica Scandinavica Supplement 15: 305–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1985). Methodology of explaining differences in dietary composition of carabid beetles (Coleoptera) by competition. Oikos 45: 37–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1987). Scales of variation: their distinction and ecological importance. Annales Zoologici Fennici 24: 195–203.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1988). Mayr's ecological species criterion. Systematic Zoology 37: 47–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1990). Theories on species responses to variable climates. In: M.M. Boer and R.S. de Groot (eds.), Landscape-ecological Impact of Climatic Change: Proceedings of a European Conference, Lunteren, The Netherlands, 3–7 December 1989, pp. 274–289. IOS Press, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1994). Biogeographical ecology. Journal of Biogeography 21: 341–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1996). Measuring ecological biodiversity. Biodiversity Letters 3: 58–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. (1997). Impact of biogeography on a population-biological paradigm. Journal of Biogeography 24: 541–547.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R., and F. van den Bosch (1997). Invading into an ecologically non-uniform area. In: B. Huntley, W. Cramer, A.V. Morgan, H.C. Prentice, and J.R.M. Allen (eds.), Past and Future Rapid Environmental Changes, pp. 217–225. Springer, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hengeveld, R. and G.H. Walter (1999). The two coexisting ecological paradigms. Acta Biotheoretica, 47: 141–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, R.D. (1993). Ecology at the mesoscale: the influence of regional processes on local communities. In: R.E. Ricklefs and D. Schluter (eds), Species Diversity in Ecological Communities. Historical and Geographical Perspectives, pp. 77–88. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holzner, W. and R. Immonen (1982). Europe: an overview. In: W. Holzner and M. Numata (eds), Biology and ecology of weeds, pp. 203–226. Junk, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hüber, F. (1985). Approaches to insect behavior of interest to both neurobiologists and behavioral ecologists. Florida Entomologist 68: 52–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huizinga, J. (1950). Homo Ludens. A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Beacon Press, Boston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson, G.E. (1948). Circular causal systems in ecology. Annals of the New York Academy of Science 50: 221–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kareiva, P. (1986). Patchiness, dispersal, and species interactions: consequences for communities of herbivorous insects. In: J. Diamond and T.J. Case (eds), Community ecology, pp. 192–206. Harper & Row, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keddy, P. (1994). Applications of the Hertzsprung-Russell star chart to ecology: reflections on the 21st birthday of Geographical Ecology. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 9: 231–234.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lack, D. (1945). The ecology of closely related species with special reference to Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and Shag (P. aristotelis). Journal of Animal Ecology 14: 12–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lensink, R. (1997). Range expansion of raptors in Britain and the Netherlands since the 1960s: Testing an individual-based diffusion model. Journal of Animal Ecology 66: 811–826.

    Google Scholar 

  • Losos, J. B., K. I. Warholt and T.W. Schoener (1997). Adaptive differentiation following experimental island colonization in Anolis lizards. Nature 387: 70–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H. (1972a). Geographical Ecology. Patterns in the Distribution of Species. Harper & Row, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H. (1972b). Coexistence of species. In: J. Behnke (ed.), Challenging Biological Problems, pp. 253–259. Oxford University 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, pp. 81–120. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith, J. (1989). Evolutionary Genetics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr, E. (1982). The Growth of Biological Thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metz, J.A.J. and O. Diekmann (Eds) (1986). The dynamics of Physiologically structured populations. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 511 p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miklos, G.L.G. and K.S.W. Campbell (1994). From protein domains to extinct phyla: Reverse-engineering approaches to the evolution of biological complexities. In: S. Bengston (ed.), Early Life on Earth, pp. 501–516. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry, M.L. (1978). Climatic change, agriculture and settlement. Dawson & Archon, Folkestone.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson, H.E.H. (1985). The recognition concept of species. In: E.S. Vrba (ed.), Species and Speciation, pp. 21–29. Transvaal Museum, Pretoria.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson, H.E.H. (1986). Environment and species. South African Journal of Science 82: 62–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pielou, E.C. (1984). The Interpretation of Ecological Data: A Primer on Classification and Ordination. Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, G.J. and J.G. Ollason (1987). Eight reasons why optimal foraging is a complete waste of time. Oikos 49: 111–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapport, D.J. (1991). Myths in the foundations of economics and ecology. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 44: 185–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricklefs, R.E. and D. Schluter (eds.) (1993a). Species Diversity in Ecological Communities. University of Chicago, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricklefs, R.E. and D. Schluter (1993b). Preface. In: R.E. Ricklefs and D. Schluter (eds), Species Diversity in Ecological Communities, p. v. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridley, M. (1994). The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. Penguin, Harmondsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, A. (1985). The Structure of Biological Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roughgarden, J., S. Gaines and H. Possingham (1988). Recruitment dynamics in complex life cycles. Science 241: 1460–1466.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sale, P.F. (1988). Perception, pattern, chance and the structure of reef fish communities. Environmental Biology of Fishes 21: 3–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener, T.W. (1976). Alternatives to Lotka-Volterra competition: models of intermediate complexity. Theoretical Population Biology 10: 309–333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair, M. (1988). Marine Populations. An Essay on Population Regulation and Speciation. Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Seattle.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slack, J.M.W., P.W.H. Holland and C.F. Graham. (1993). The zootype and the phylotypic stage. Nature 361: 490–492.

    Google Scholar 

  • Southwood, T.R.E. (1977). Habitat, the templet for ecological strategies? Journal of Animal Ecology 46: 337–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Southwood, T.R.E. and H.N. Comins (1976). A synoptic population model. Journal of Animal Ecology 45: 949–965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stenseth, N.C. and J. Maynard Smith (1984). Coevolution in ecosystems: Red Queen evolution or stasis. Evolution 38: 870–880.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, C. D. and M. C. Singer (1998). Scale-dependent evolution of specialization in a checkerspot butterfly: from individuals to metapopulations and ecotypes. In: S. Mopper and S. Y. Strauss (eds), Genetic Structure and Local Adaptation in Natural Insect Populations. Effects of Ecology, Life History, and Behavior, pp. 343–374, Chapman & Hall, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P.A. and S.A. Cox (1978). Germination of the bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta (L.) Chouard) in relation to distribution and habitat. Annals of Botany 42: 51–62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, A. and H.E.H. Paterson. (1991). Species and speciation: evolutionary tempo and mode in the fossil record reconsidered. Geobios 24: 761–769.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bosch, F., R. Hengeveld and J.A.J. Metz. (1992). Analysing the velocity of animal range expansion. Journal of Biogeography 19: 135–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Klinken, R.D. and G.H. Walter (1996). The ecology of organisms that breed in a divided and ephemeral habitat: insects of fallen fruit. Acta Oecologica 17: 405–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Valen, L. (1973). A new evolutionary law. Evolutionary Theory 1: 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba, E. S. (1992). Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory. Journal of Mammology 73: 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. (1988). Competitive exclusion, coexistence and community structure. Acta Biotheoretica 37: 281–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G. H. (1991). What is resource partitioning? Journal of Theoretical Biology 150: 137–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. (1995). Species concepts and the nature of ecological generalizations about diversity. In: D.M. Lambert and H.G. Spencer (eds.), Speciation and the Recognition Concept Theory and Application, pp. 191–224. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. and J.S. Donaldson (1994). Heteronomous hyperparasitoids, sex ratios and adaptations. Ecological Entomology 19: 89–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. and H.E.H. Paterson (1994). The implications of palaeontological evidence for theories of ecological communities and species richness. Australian Journal of Ecology 19: 241–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. and H.E.H. Paterson (1995). Levels of understanding in ecology: interspecific competition and community ecology. Australian Journal of Ecology 20: 463–466.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H. and M.P. Zalucki (1999). Rare butterflies and theories of evolution and ecology. In: R.L. Kitching, R.E. Jones and N.E. Pierce (eds.), Biology of Australian Butterflies, Chapter 21. CSIRO, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, G.H., P.E. Hulley and A.J.F.K. Craig (1984). Speciation, adaptation and interspecific competition. Oikos 43: 246–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walter, H. and E. Walter (1953). Einige allgemeine Ergebnisse unserer Forschungsreise nach Südwestafrika 1952/53: Das Gesetz der relativen Standortskonstantz; das Wesen der Pflanzengesellschaften. Berichte des deutschen botanischen Gesellschafts 66: 228–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J.Y. (1960). A critique of the heat unit approach to plant response studies. Ecology 41: 785–790.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, G.C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection. A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, S. (1931). Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics 16: 97–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, J.Z. (1975). The Life of Mammals: Their Anatomy and Physiology. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zobel, M. (1992). Plant species coexistence — the role of historical, evolutionary and ecological factors. Oikos 65: 314–320.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Entomology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia

    G.H. Walter

  2. Institute of Forestry and Nature Research, P.O. Box 23, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    R. Hengeveld

  3. National Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    R. Hengeveld

Authors
  1. G.H. Walter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. Hengeveld
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Walter, G., Hengeveld, R. The Structure of the Two Ecological Paradigms. Acta Biotheor 48, 15–46 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1002670731066

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1002670731066

Keywords

Search

Navigation