Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Habitat Templets and the Changing Worldview of Ecology

  • Published:
Biology and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Habitat templets are graphical-qualitative models which describe the development of life-history strategies in specific environmental conditions. In the context of the previous models of life-history strategies, life-history theorists focused on the density-dependent factors as the factors determining life-history strategies. With the use of habitat templets, the focus is oriented towards the environmental causal factors, considering density-dependent phenomena as by-products of the environmental impact. This implies an important shift in causality as well as in the worldview of life-history theorists: population is not considered as a closed system isolated from the environment. The object of study is the organism-in-its-environment, as a complex multilevel system. This shift has also methodological consequences: Life-history theory combines holistic and reductionistic insights, using a variety of heuristic models. This imposes a new conception of generality as well as of the structure of scientific theories.

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

  • Blackburn, T.M.: 1991, ‘Evidence for a Fast-Slow Continuum of Life-history Traits Among Parasitoid Hymenoptera’, Functional Ecology 5, 65-74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyce, M.S.: 1984, ‘Restitution of r-and K-Selection as a Model of Density-Dependent Natural Selection’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 15: 427-447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandon, R.N.: 1996, ‘Reductionism versus Holism versus Mechanism’, in Brandon R.N. (ed.) Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Biology, New York, pp. 179-204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J., Davidson, D.W., Munger, J. and Inouye, R.: 1986, ‘Experimental Community Ecology: The Desert Granivore System’, in Diamond, J. and Case, T. (eds.), Community Ecology, Harper & Row, New York, pp. 41-46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caswell, H.: 1982, ‘Life History Theory and the Equilibrium Status of the Population’, American Naturalist 120, 317-339.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cody, M.L. and Diamond, J.M.: 1975, Ecology and Evolution of Communities, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, J.P.: 1986, ‘Evolutionary Ecology and the Use of Natural Selection in Ecological Theory’, Journal of the History of Biology 19, 257-288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, J.P., Beatty, J. and Maienschein, J.: 1986, ‘Introduction: Between Ecology and Evolutionary Biology’, Journal of the History of Biology 19, 169-180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J.H.: 1980, ‘Diversity and the Coevolution of Competitors, or the Ghost of Competition Past’, Oikos 35, 131-138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J.H.: 1983, ‘On the Prevelence and Relative Importance of Interspecific Competition: Evidence from Field Experiments’, American Naturalist 122, 661-696.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, G.: 1993, ‘The Competition Controversy in Community Ecology’, Biology and Philosophy 8, 359-384.

    Google Scholar 

  • David, J.F.: 1993: ‘Criticism of the Standard r-K Dichotomy, With Special Reference to Life Histories of Diplopoda’, Acta Oecologica 14, 129-139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fretwell, S.D.: 1975, ‘The Impact of Robert MacArthur on Ecology’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 6, 1-13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenslade, P.: 1972a, ‘Distribution Patterns of Priochirus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in the Solomon Islands’, Evolution 26, 203-220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenslade, P.: 1972b, ‘Evolution in the Staphulinid Genus Priochirus (coleoptera)’, Evolution 26, 203-220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenslade, P.: 1983, ‘Adversity Selection and the Habitat Templet’, American Naturalist 122, 352-365.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grime, J.P.: 1977, ‘Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory’, American Naturalist 111, 1169-1194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grime, J.P.: 1979, Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes, Wiley & Sons, Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grime, J.P.: 1993, ‘Ecology sans frontieres’, Oikos 68, 385-392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Janzen, D.H.: 1970, ‘Herbivores and the Numbers of Tree Species in Tree Species in Tropical Forests’, American Naturalist 104, 501-528.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jongeling, T.: 1991, The Sceptical Biologist: An Enquiry into the Structure of Evolutionary Theory, Ph. D. Thesis, Amsterdam.

  • Haila, Y.: 1982, ‘Hypothetico-Deductivism and the Competition Controversy in Ecology’, Annals Zoologica Fennici 19, 255-263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haila, Y.: 1986, ‘The Multiple Faces of Ecological Theory and Data’, Biology and Philosophy 1, 377-388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haila, Y. and Levins, R.: 1992, Humanity and Nature: Ecology, Science and Society, Pluto Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, J.: 1967, ‘A Darwinian Approach to Plant Ecology’, Journal of Applied Ecology 4, 267-290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haslett, J.R.: 1994, ‘Community Structure and the Fractal Dimensions of Mountain Habitats’, J. Theoretical Biology 167, 407-411.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilborn, R. and Stearns, S.: 1982, ‘On Inference in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: The Problem of Multiple Causes’, Acta Biotheoretica 31, 145-164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kareiva, P.: 1989, ‘Renewing the Dialogue Between Theory and Experiments in Population Ecology’, in Roughgarden J., May, R. and Levin, S. (eds.), Perspectives in Ecological Theory, pp. 68-88.

  • Kingsland, Sh.: 1985, Modeling Nature, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korfiatis, K. and Stamou, G.: 1994, ‘Emergence of New Fields in Ecology: The Case of Life History Studies’, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 16, 97-116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Korfiatis, K. and Stamou, G.: 1995, ‘ ‘strategic’ Thought and the Development of Life History Strategy Models in Ecology’, Neusis 2, 27-43 (in Greek with English summary).

    Google Scholar 

  • Krimbas, C.: 1986, ‘Darwinism Nowadays’, in Krimbas, C. (ed.), Darvinika, Ermis Publ. Co., Athens, pp. 15-40. (In Greek)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawton, J.: 1996, ‘Patterns in Ecology’, Oikos 75, 145-147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin, S.A.: 1974, ‘Dispersion and Population Interactions’, American Naturalist 108, 207-228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R.: 1966, ‘The Strategy of Model Building in Population Biology’, American Scientist 54, 421-431.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R.: 1968, Evolution in Changing Environments, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R.: 1993, ‘A Response to Orzack and Sober: Formal Analysis and the Fluidity of Science’, Quarterly Review of Biology.

  • Levins, R. and Lewontin, R.: 1980, ‘Dialectics and Reductionism in Ecology’, in Saarinen (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Ecology, Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, R.: 1983, ‘Predators and Hurricanes Change Ecology’, Science 221, 737-740.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loehle, C.: 1988, ‘Problems with the Triangular Model for Representing Plant Strategies’, Ecology 69, 284-286.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H.: 1972, Geographical Ecology, Harper & Row, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H and Wilson, E.O.: 1967, The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, R.: 1987, ‘Pluralism in Ecology’, Annual Review of Ecology and Ecosystems 18, 321-341.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, R.: 1995, ‘H. A. Gleason's Individualistic Concept and Theory of Animal Communities: A Continuing Controversy’, Biological Review 70, 317-357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palladino, P.: 1991, ‘Defining Ecological Theories, Mathematical Models and Applied Biology in the 1960s and 1970s’, Journal of the History of Biology 24, 223-243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry, G.D.: 1981, ‘The Meaning of r-and K-selection’, Oecologia 48, 260-264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peet, R.K.: 1976, ‘The Legacy of MacArthur’, Ecology 57, 613-614.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters R.H.: 1991, A Critique for Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickett, S.T.A., Kolasa, J. and Jones, Cl.: 1994, Ecological Understanding: The Nature of Theory and the Theory of Nature, Academic Press, San Diego.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roughgarden, J.: 1983, ‘Competition and Theory in Community Ecology’, American Naturalist 122, 583-601.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roughgarden, J., May, R.M. and Levin, S.A. (eds.): 1989, Perspectives in Ecological Theory, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener, T.W.: 1986, ‘Kinds of Ecological Communities-Ecology Becomes Pluralistic’, in Case and Diamond (eds.), Community Ecology, pp. 467-479.

  • Simberloff, D.: 1983, ‘Competition Theory, Hypothesis-Testing, and Other Ecological Buzzwords’, American Naturalist 122, 626-635.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloep, P.: 1993, ‘Methodology Revitalised’, British Journal of Philosophy of Science 44, 231-249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sloep, P. and Steen van der, W.: 1987, ‘The Nature of Evolutionary Theory: The Semantic Challenge’, Biology and Philosophy 2, 1-15.

    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.: 1988, ‘Tactics, Strategies, and Templets’, Oikos 52, 3-18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Southwood, T.R.E., May, R., Hassell, M.P. and Conway, G.: 1974, ‘Ecological Strategies and Population Parameters’, American Naturalist 108, 791-804.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamou, G.P., Asikidis, M., Argyropoulou, M. and Sgardelis, S.: 1993, ‘Ecological Time Versus Standard Clock Time: The Asymmetry of Phenologies and the Life History Strategies of Some Soil Arthropods from Mediterranean Ecosystems’, Oikos 66, 27-35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S.C.: 1976, ‘Life History Tactics: A Review of the Ideas’, Quarterly Review of Biology 51, 3-47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S.C.: 1977, ‘The Evolution of Life-History Traits: A Critique of the Theory and a Review of the Data’, Annual Review of Ecology Systematics 8, 145-171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S.C.: 1980, ‘A New View of Life History Evolution’, Oikos 35, 266-281.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S.C.: 1992, The Evolution of Life Histories, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steen, van der W. and Scholten, M.: 1983, ‘Methodological Problems in Evolutionary Biology: Stress and Stress Tolerance, An Exercise in Definitions’, Acta Biotheroretica 34, 81-90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, P.: 1989, ‘Revising Models and Generating Theory’, Oikos 54, 121-126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilman, D.: 1990, ‘Constraints and Tradeoffs: Toward a predictive Theory of Competition and Succession’, Oikos 58, 3-15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toft, C.A. and Shea, P.J.: 1983, ‘Detecting Community-wide Patterns: Estimating Power Strengthens Statistical Inferences’, American Naturalist 122, 618-625.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, D.: 1993, ‘Foraging Theory, Like all other Fields of Science, Needs Multiple Working Hypotheses’, Oikos 67, 376-378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.H.: 1975, ‘The Design and Stability of Plant Communities’, in van Dobben and Lowe-McConnell, R.H. (eds.), Unifying Concepts in Ecology, Junk, The Hague, pp. 169-181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, R.H. and Goodman, D.: 1979, ‘Classifying Species According to Their Demographic Strategy: Population Fluctuations and Environmental Heterogeneity’, American Naturalist 113, 185-200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiens, J.A.: 1977, ‘On Competition and Variable Environments’, American Scientist 65, 590-597.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiegert, R.G.: 1988, ‘Simulation Models of Ecosystem’, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 6, 311-338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilbur, H.M., Tinkle, D.W. and Collins, J.P.: 1974, ‘Environmental Certaincy, Trophic Level and Resource Availability in Life History Evolution’, American Naturalist 108, 805-817.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D.S.: 1988, ‘Holism and Reductionism in Evolutionary Ecology’, Oikos 53, 269-273.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology School of Biology, Aristotle University, UPB 119, 540 06, Thessaloniki, Greece

    K.J. Korfiatis & G.P. Stamou

Authors
  1. K.J. Korfiatis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. G.P. Stamou
    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

Korfiatis, K., Stamou, G. Habitat Templets and the Changing Worldview of Ecology. Biology & Philosophy 14, 375–393 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006543127454

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006543127454

Search

Navigation