Get e-book Advances in Ecological Research: 30

Advances in Ecological Research: Volume 30

Contents:

Trends in Ecological Research during the Last Three Decades – A Systematic Review

Advances in Ecological Research - Wikipedia

Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution. Other titles from Academic Press. Conceptual Breakthroughs in Ethology and Animal Behavior. Biology, Systematics, Biogeography, and Ecology. Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology: Prelude and Static Models. Occupancy Estimation and Modeling. Browse titles from Academic Press. Keep up-to-date with NHBS products, news and offers. The differences between surveys in terms of the frequency of each term were analyzed using Chi square test.

To evaluate change in the frequency of these variables over time, we used logistic regression [25] , with publication year as a continuous variable and survey type as a fixed variable. In order to account for multiple comparisons, we applied the Bonferroni correction. The Bonferroni correction becomes very conservative when the number of comparisons becomes large, as it controls the probability of false positives only, at the cost of increasing the probability of false negatives [26].

We therefore report the results using Bonferroni correction, as well as for less conservative thresholds. In both surveys, the four most common topics related to this domain: Temporal trend was significant for community studies only a logistic model, see Table 2. There were significant changes in the frequency of several topics over time.

The frequency of two topics climate change and biodiversity, increased significantly with time in both surveys Table 2 , Figure 2. The results of both surveys were quite similar for 14 of the 20 topics, while significant differences between the two surveys were found for six topics: Few systematic surveys of ecological literature have been conducted to date, and most have been restricted to a single theme or a narrow branch of ecological science [20] , [21] , [22] , [23].

Top Authors

Read the latest chapters of Advances in Ecological Research at ScienceDirect. com, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. Purchase Advances in Ecological Research, Volume 30 - 1st Edition. Print Book & E-Book. ISBN ,

For example, [22] evaluated relations between the size of the organism and its relative representation in ecological research. Swihart [12] quantified the rates of appearance of new ecological terms and disappearance of old terms. Shorrocks [24] was perhaps the only investigator to quantify various trends in ecological science, using articles published in The Journal of Animal Ecology between and To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first attempt to systematically survey the entire breadth of ecological literature, in order to quantify various characteristics of the science of ecology, as well as their temporal trends.

The results suggest that ecology may be substantially less dynamic than is generally acknowledged. Ecology is mostly a study of single species. Most of the ecological research focused on the demography, physiology and distribution of single species. In comparison, community and ecosystem studies represented a minor fraction of ecological research. This surprising finding seems at odds with the strong emphasis on the community and the ecosystem as major concepts in ecology [27] , [28].

Trends in Ecological Research during the Last Three Decades – A Systematic Review

Also surprising was the scarcity of a few topics which are thought to be central in ecology. Most of the increase in community studies occurred in the s, probably reflecting the renewed interest in this field, after the neutral theory challenged the prevalence of the niche concept. The analysis of changes in the frequency of research topics over time provided inconclusive results. Only two topics, climate change and biodiversity, showed a significant change in both surveys.

Bestselling Series

The increase in both topics probably relates to the fact that both were non-issues at the beginning of the period under study. Four other topics changed significantly, and seven other topics changed nearly significantly, in only one of the surveys. Overall, there does not seem to be a drastic transformation in the relative importance of domains and topics in the field of ecology, but the apparent change in topics and research types signifies that ecological science is not entirely stagnant.

The frequency of more than half of the topics and domains was very similar in both surveys, but nearly a third of the topics differed significantly between the surveys. Data-analysis became a more common research tool. Many of the studies in this category were, in fact, meta-analyses analyses of data from several sources. The major increase in data-analysis studies was in the mids, suggesting that the increased availability of information in the age of the Internet had an important role in this trend. Comparing the two surveys in terms of type of research revealed a fundamental difference: If this trend continues in future decades, it may prove to be a major shift in the orientation of ecology.

Prominent ecologists have claimed that ecology has undergone transitions [29] , and even paradigm shifts [5] in recent decades, and is now a mature and competent science [30]. Our survey reveals that these claims perhaps overstate the case. The science of ecology appears to be changing slowly, in the sense that major research subjects and principal methodologies have not changed dramatically for at least 30 years. In particular, the popular image of ecology as a science in transition [7] , dealing chiefly with ecosystems and communities [1] seems at odds with the major proportion of single species studies reported here.

Navigation menu.
There was a problem providing the content you requested!
Marulla (Ediciones Tácitas) (Spanish Edition)?

A contrasting view, put forward by O'Connor [11] , claimed that ecology lags after other life sciences, and makes very little progress. O'Conner's study ignited a debate, wherein various arguments were employed to disprove this claim [31] , [23] , or put it in a balanced perspective [12]. This debate is still ongoing, and is probably driven by emotions no less than by objective evaluations. The current study does not substantiate O'Connor's claim, and it was not meant to evaluate progress.

However, it is safe to assume that a major advance in ecology would be accompanied by a major change in the frequency of domains, topics, and types of research; yet, as shown here, these have changed only moderately in the course of three decades. A major aspect of progress in science is the rate at which basic questions in ecology are being answered [12] , which we have not evaluated, and is very difficult to evaluate quantitatively. Also, we could not detect conceptual shifts, such as network thinking, that do not connect to particular terms or topics.

About this book

The increase in both topics probably relates to the fact that both were non-issues at the beginning of the period under study. Q1 green comprises the quarter of the journals with the highest values, Q2 yellow the second highest values, Q3 orange the third highest values and Q4 red the lowest values. Volume 31 Andrew Rossiter. Introduction Ecologists often describe ecological science as dynamic. British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. We predefined 20 topics that describe major research fields in ecology, and grouped these 20 topics into five broad ecological domains:

In contrast, the list of fundamental questions in ecology [32] reports profound knowledge gaps regarding the central mechanisms driving ecosystems, communities, and even population dynamics. Our approach could not, and was not meant to detect changes in particular methods and technologies applied within each research domain or topic.

The availability of advanced molecular and genetic tools and the increase in computing power have allowed analyses to become more complex and sophisticated.

Advances in Ecological Research - Wikipedia

However, the use of these new technologies and processing power does not imply enhanced knowledge or understanding. Also, such surveys may not detect conceptual shifts, such as network thinking, which do not connect to particular terms or topics.

Perhaps the single and most important change in the study of ecology is the growing proportion of ecological research directed towards problem solving. This trend by itself, if continued, may represent a major transition in ecology in the long run. Our results may be disturbing to some researchers, insofar as they portray an ecological discipline which is considerably less dynamic than ecologists would like to believe.

The value of this research is precisely in reviving the debate and presenting an opportunity for self-assessment to those who strive to advance the discipline, all of which can serve to stimulate the investigation of new and groundbreaking tools, paradigms and perspectives. Only through meta-scale monitoring of the scope of research can we understand, and hope to influence, the trajectory of ecological research in the years to come.

This study was funded by the Israel Science Foundation grant number The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Published online Apr Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

Advances in Ecological Research

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Received Sep 16; Accepted Feb This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. A full list of journals sampled for survey 1. Abstract It is thought that the science of ecology has experienced conceptual shifts in recent decades, chiefly from viewing nature as static and balanced to a conception of constantly changing, unpredictable, complex ecosystems.

Despite this diversity of topics, there are plenty of points of contact and cross-reference. The Best Books of Check out the top books of the year on our page Best Books of Product details Format Hardback pages Dimensions Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more.

Other books in this series. Volume 38 Ryszard Laskowski. Volume 43 Guy O. Global Change in Multispecies Systems: Volume 46 Ute Jacob. Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution: Volume 31 Andrew Rossiter. Volume 45 Andrea Belgrano.

Volume 40 Hans Meltofte. Model Systems to Global Perspectives: