Ecological synthesis as target and approach

Background/Question/Methods: Graduate training in ecology is facilitated by a spatial scale that matches human observation but is impeded by temporal mismatch between ecological processes and the dissertation experience. As a result, graduate students are often not prepared to assume the duties of the academic professionals many aspire to become. In addition, the desire to extend theory in ecology to reflect the maturity of the science, leads many mentors to steer graduate students toward inductive approaches and away from observation based hypothetico-deductive methods. This tendency is exacerbated by the existence of long term data sets in need or reduction and analysis, a task too often assigned to graduate students.

Results/Conclusions: Remedy may lie in a more synthetic approach to graduate education in ecology wherein students are encouraged to bring together a breadth of epistemologies, tools, statistics, and mindsets to properly match the demands of the evolving discipline. Emphasis on scientific method(s), development of collaborative skills, training in techniques for idea generation, and continued valuation of “big picture” reference can together foster this integrative perspective. A synthetic approach to ecology is beneficial not only to graduate students but to all levels at which ecology is learned.