Why we need a Canonical Ecology Curriculum

Abstract

As commonly perceived and pointed out, ecology is fragmented into many poorly integrated subdisciplines, resulting in recruiting, communication, and perspective meta-problems. To put together those fragments, solve those meta-problems, and integrate our efforts more efficiently we suggest a tentative Canonical Ecology Curriculum to be used for training the next generations of ecologists. Such a curriculum should be structured around a backbone of robust theories, classical case studies, and common methods, which we can expect to be taught in any graduate programme worldwide. This would minimise the ambiguity of what an ecologist learns in different countries and continents, strengthen our common vocabulary for internal communication, and help us bridge basic and applied Ecology more efficiently. This minimalistic backbone would leave plenty of room for the “free programme”, so that each institution also teaches knowledge and skills relevant to its own reality. To achieve this aim, we propose to focus on eight spatiotemporal scales, very much in line with current textbooks, but in reverse order: from global to genetic. This would be consistent with our ability to understand and predict, as aggregated entities average out the idiosyncrasies of lower organisational levels. We close on a call for global collaboration to exchange experiences, define common goals, develop the curriculum, and operationalise its use for real-world teaching.