Front cover image for The background of ecology : concept and theory

The background of ecology : concept and theory

The Background of Ecology is a critical and up-to-date review of the origins and development of ecology, with emphasis on the major concepts and theories shared in the ecological traditions of plant and animal ecology, limnology, and oceanography. The work traces developments in each of these somewhat isolated areas and identifies, where possible, parallels or convergences among them. Dr McIntosh describes how ecology emerged as a science in the context of nineteenth-century natural history
Print Book, English, 1986, ©1985
1st pbk. ed View all formats and editions
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [Cambridgeshire], 1986, ©1985
xiii, 383 pages ; 24 cm.
9780521270878, 0521270871
16967285
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Antecedents of ecology
A transformed natural history
What is ecology?
Sources of ecology seen by biologists
Sources of ecology seen by historians
Who founded ecology?
Self-conscious ecology
2. The crystallization of ecology
Nuclei for ecology
Plant ecology, physiology, and plant geography
Marine ecology
Limnology
Terrestrial animal ecology
The institutionalization of ecology
3. Dynamic ecology
Early community and equilibrium concepts
Dynamic plant ecology
Animal community dynamics
Aquatic communities
Paleoecology
Equilibrium
4. Quantitative community ecology
Biogeographical origins
Marine biology
Limnology
Terrestrial plant ecology
Problems of quantitative community ecology
5. Population ecology
Physiological ecology and population ecology
Definition and antecedents of population ecology
Population census and survey
Theoretical population ecology
Theoretical ecology, competition, and equilibrium
6. Ecosystem ecology, systems ecology, and big biology
Ecosystem ecology
Systems ecology
The International Biological Program
Systems analysis
Recent ecosystem ecology
7. Theoretical approaches to ecology
The revolution in theoretical ecology
Ecologists as philosophers
Ecological theory and evolution
Community theory
Ecological laws and principles
Theoretical mathematical ecology
8. Ecology and environment
Ecology and the conservation movement
Nature preserves and surveys
Human ecology
Ecology and the environmental movement
References
Name index
Subject index
Includes indexes