Nothing in modern studies; however, many contend that natural history is still done like back in the 19th century. If you look at those ancient papers you will find all kinds of pure speculation and things that simply could never be published today. Modern natural history, or life history studies involve tedious work and very large sample sizes of organisms. Old fashioned pre-modern studies might see a bird fly over and write about how the bird was angry or gleefully flying about.
It is important to distinguish between what modern organismal biologists label as natural history and what natural history was in the day. Natural history tends to be organism focused instead of ecosystem focused. Some people will lump these studies under wildlife ecology, animal ecology, or even zoology. In any case, I hope that helps explain it. You will very often hear people discuss natural history in a negative light as if it is some kind of ancient field no longer practiced. In fact, they are not talking about modern life history studies but those approaches from early times. It is pretty interesting to note that life history ecologists are a dying breed in that many of these involving vertebrates require a life time to complete and that isn't well-suited to modern tenure guidelines! Also, they are difficult. I recall Hobart M. Smith once saying he didn't do life history because it was too hard! Natural history/life history is focused on the organism's ecological responses to the environment Its just a different approach to the same questions. On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 8:47 PM, Wayne Tyson <landr...@cox.net> wrote: > Ecolog: > > What specifically distinguishes natural history from ecology? > > WT > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matt Chew" <anek...@gmail.com> > To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> > Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 8:50 AM > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Hypothesis Testing in Ecology > > >> Ecology without hypotheses has been dismissed (sometimes derided) as >> natural >> history, but even natural history requires one hypothesis. Reporting an >> observation requires >0 confidence that an observation is meaningful, can >> be >> communicated, and can be interpreted. There are also tacit hypotheses >> inherent in scale, including the duration, extent and complexity of >> natural >> history observations. >> >> Hypothesis testing is a particularly relevant topic in US ecology at the >> moment because choices made in establishing the NEON program involve >> numerous hypotheses about ecosystem identity, composition, extent and >> location, the relevance of potential instrumentation and particular >> scales. >> However, the term 'hypothesis' is absent from NEON's website ( >> http://www.neoninc.org ). Explicit hypothesis testing done under NEON >> auspices will be subject to an array of tacit hypotheses, none of which >> have >> been articulated (or, it seems, even considered) by NEON's creators and >> promoters. Any supposedly non-hypothetical work conducted under NEON will >> face the same challenge. >> >> Matthew K Chew >> Assistant Research Professor >> Arizona State University School of Life Sciences >> >> ASU Center for Biology & Society >> PO Box 873301 >> Tempe, AZ 85287-3301 USA >> Tel 480.965.8422 >> Fax 480.965.8330 >> mc...@asu.edu or anek...@gmail.com >> http://cbs.asu.edu/people/profiles/chew.php >> http://asu.academia.edu/MattChew >> >> >> ----- >> No virus found in this message. >> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >> Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3475 - Release Date: 03/01/11 >> > -- Malcolm L. McCallum Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
