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Science 31 August 1962:
Vol. 137. no. 3531, pp. 652 - 657
DOI: 10.1126/science.137.3531.652
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Articles

Patterns and Populations

Basic problems of population biology transcend artificial disciplinary boundaries

Paul R. Ehrlich 1 and Richard W. Holm 1

1 The Division of Systematic Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif

In summary, then, we would like to suggest that in broad investigations of the patterns of interaction and relationship among organisms the artificial and stultifying fragmentation of population biology into divisions such as taxonomy, population genetics, and ecology should be ignored. Care also should be taken to scrutinize current concepts such as "species," "niche," and "community." If some emergent patterns seem to correspond to a great degree with these concepts, then the concepts may be given operational definitions and the labels should be retained. If there is no such correspondence, then the concepts will have outlived their usefulness and should be discarded.

The basic units of population biology are not communities, species, or even populations, but individual organisms (32). In populations, variation, growth, genetic equilibria, selection, behavior, and so on are not "things" but relationships. Therefore, what is of interes in population biology is the pattern in which organisms are related in space and time (33).


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Nature of Plant Species.
D. A. Levin and D. A. Levin (1979)
Science 204, 381-384
   Abstract »    PDF »
Dominance and the Niche in Ecological Systems.
S. J. McNaughton and L. L. wolf (1970)
Science 167, 131-139
   PDF »
Differentiation of Populations.
P. R. Ehrlich and P. H. Raven (1969)
Science 165, 1228-1232
   PDF »
A Just View of Systematics.
J. S. Rowe (1968)
Science 160, 379
   PDF »
Population Biology.
D. Amadon, P. R. Ehrlich, and R. W. Holm (1962)
Science 138, 733-734
   PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)