History of Ecological Sciences, Part 40: Darwin's Evolutionary Ecology

Abstract

(1809–1882) was the greatest biological scientist and a major contributor to ecological sciences (Vorzimmer 1965, Acot 1983, Dajoz 1984:46–50, 58–83). Natural history before Darwin had many ingredients of ecology, but was weak in theory. The balance of nature, including Linnaeus' version, economy of nature (Egerton 2007b:81–84), was the main example, and it was never developed as a precise theory (Egerton 1973, Kricher 2009). The evolutionary ideas of Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck had ecological relevance (Egerton 2008, 2010a) but were not developed into an elaborate theory like Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. What do I mean by evolutionary ecology? A coyote might eat different prey in different parts of its geographic range, so that is not much of an evolved relationship. However, other relationships have evolved. Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, one of the leading botanists during the first three decades of the 1800s, was uninterested in studies on floral mechanisms that seemed to guide specific species of insects into pollinating a specific species of plants, because he did not believe that one biological species was modified to meet the needs of another species. He was aware of Lamarck's evolutionary speculations about species striving to change, but he was among the majority of botanists and zoologists who did not find Lamarck's teachings convincing. Darwin's first book after publishing the Origin of Species was on the mechanisms among orchid species that guide particular insect species to pollinate that orchid species— caused by natural selection, not by Lamarckian striving—one example of evolutionary ecology. Another example is a harmless animal species evolving by natural selection to mimic a dangerous species as a protection from predators. Darwin's Origin unleashed this line of thought before ecology became an organized science, and later ecologists readily adopted this intellectual tool (Kolasa 2011:28, 39). Darwin's Journal of Researches (1839) made substantial contributions to ecology (Egerton 2010b), and he was as well equipped after his voyage to advance understanding of the economy of nature as to