Ecology and Palaeoecology: Two Approaches, One Objective
Ecology and Palaeoecology: Two Approaches, One Objective
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生态学和古生态学：两种方法，一个目标
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
V. Rull
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
V. Rull
尽管它们的名字可能暗示，生态学和古生态学在历史上也是分开的学科。这里从理论的角度分析这种不幸的分离。促成这种分离的因素包括：1）人类思维的过去-现在分离特征，2）古生态学家起源领域的多样性，3）证据的对比性质和相关方法的差异，以及4）使用前缀palaeo-引起的误解。均变论强调过去、现在和未来不是离散的单位，而是一个时间连续体，物种和群落在其中流动、变化和进化;生态学和古生态学只是有着共同目标的不同方法，这一目标是对生物圈的生态学理解。因此，需要对术语进行澄清。广义上的生态学，包括对过去（古生态学）、当前研究（新生态学或当代生态学）和未来预测（预测生态学）的推断。因此，古生态学是生态学利用代用品研究过去的一种手段。其他以palaeo-开头的学科（特别是古气候学和古环境重建）不一定是生态学。建议生态学家和古生态学家开展联合项目，并建议古生态学家更多地参与生态学期刊、书籍和会议。这些合作将表明，古生态学家不仅仅是一个古科学家，其数据可能对生态学有意义，而是主要是一个在另一个时间尺度上使用不同方法的生态学家。
Despite what their names might suggest, ecology and palaeoecology have progressed historically as well separated disciplines. This unfortunate disjunction is analyzed here from a theoretical point of view. Among the factors that have facilitated the separation are: 1) the past-present dissociation characteristic of the human mind, 2) the diversity of fields of provenance of palaeoecologists, 3) the contrasting nature of the evidence and associated methodological differences, and 4) misunderstandings caused by the use of prefix palaeo-. The principle of uniformitarianism emphasizes that past, present and future are not discrete units but a time continuum through which species and communities flow, change and evolve; and that ecology and palaeoecology are only different approaches with a common objective, which is the ecological understanding of the biosphere. Therefore, a terminological clarification is needed. Ecology in a broad sense, includes inferences about the past (palaeoecology), present studies (neoecology or contemporary ecology) and future projections (predictive ecology). Palaeoecology is thus a means by which ecology studies the past using proxies. Other disciplines beginning with the prefix palaeo- (notably palaeoclimatology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction) are not necessarily ecological. It is recommended that ecologists and palaeoecologists develop joint projects, and that palaeoecologists increase their participation in ecological journals, books and meetings. These collaborations will demonstrate that a palaeoecologist is not simply a palaeoscientist whose data may be of interest for ecology but is primarily an ecologist working on another time scale, with different methods.