The history and scope of ecology

Abstract

In their Principles of Animal Ecology Allee et al. (1949) wrote a long introductory chapter on the history of the subject. They went back to the writings of Theophrastus, who was a friend of Aristotle, and who was interested in the sorts of animals and plants that could usually be found living together in ‘communities’. Allee et al. also found much that was relevant to ecology in the writings of Pliny and other Romans, and, of course, in the writings of scholars who lived in various parts of Europe after the Renaissance.