ABOUT THIS BOOK

A celebration of ecology’s variety—as both subject and research endeavor—and a call for intradisciplinary understanding.

Open any ecology textbook, and you will find a heterogeneous mix of material that puzzles many newcomers. How do levels of organization from individual organisms to ecosystems, abstract concepts like food webs and biodiversity, and applied topics, like climate change and conservation, all fit together? New ecological research can be equally puzzling. Ecology journals publish studies using different methods in different study systems to ask different questions and achieve different goals. Is this all really Ecology? Yes, ecologist Jeremy Fox says in this eye-opening book. Ecology contains multitudes, and that is its power. In an essential book for all ecologists, Fox builds on insights developed in his popular blog, Dynamic Ecology, to argue that it is better for a scientific discipline to be messy than monolithic.

Analyzing and accessibly explaining a broad range of scientific literature, Fox shows that ecology grew from disparate sources with profoundly different motivations, methods, and goals. We see the differences in those origins reflected in today’s research, in the pull between those who want to establish ecological laws akin to physical ones and those who see ecology’s value as inherent in its species- or system-specific case studies. Neither group, Fox argues, is doing ecology wrong. Instead, he says, the strength of this science—as in most ecological systems—is diversity. It is good when two ecologists look at similar problems differently. We now need the community to know enough about those different approaches to improve how they work together.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jeremy Fox is professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. He studies population and community ecology and writes the Dynamic Ecology blog, https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/.

REVIEWS

"Is ecology merely the collective sum of all our knowledge? Even if it is, we need not abandon all hope. Fox argues a trifold resolution: to start, take a generalist’s approach (research outside one’s personal field), though he also posits a new goal, 'forecasting,' and a new approach, 'coordinated distributed experiments.' This well-referenced book should be read by advanced undergraduates considering work in ecology, graduate students, and senior ecologists wishing to reflect on their careers. Regardless, this book will help fill in personal knowledge gaps, add perspective, and provide a deeper understanding of the discipline’s history. Highly recommended."

— Choice

“How do we do the science of ecology—and how should we? The Ecology of Ecologists argues forcefully that there’s no one way to do ecology, and that what might look like chaos in our ranks—so many methods, systems, even philosophical stances—actually makes our science stronger. In this deeply researched, clearly written, and fascinating book, Fox has a lot to say about what makes ecology a vital field, and about how we could make it even better."

— Stephen B. Heard, University of New Brunswick, author of "The Scientist’s Guide to Writing" and coauthor of "Teaching and Mentoring Writers in the Sciences"

“Any ecologist would do well to read this book—it’s an honest yet hopeful reckoning with the field as a whole, and it would behoove practitioners to engage with it.”

— Ambika Kamath, coauthor of "Feminism in the Wild"

“Fox provides a long overdue audit of ecology, asking 'How are we doing, and could we be doing better?' If you care about ecology as a discipline with a collective purpose, whether as a student or practitioner, you should read this book. Packed with thought-provoking insights into the diversity of ways ecologists go about their work, and how those have changed over time, Fox’s book provides a guide to how we can reap strength from that diversity.”

— Mark Vellend, Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, author of "Everything Evolves: Why Evolution Explains More than We Think, From Proteins to Politics"

“An evidence-based, deeply thoughtful dissection of how ecologists really do ecology versus the stories we tell ourselves about how we do it. This is why students entering the field should read it. This is also why established ecologists should read it!”

— Brian J. McGill, School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, coauthor of "Community Ecology," second edition, and coeditor of "Biological Diversity"

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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