Effects of environmental advocacy on the study of ecology

Background/Question/Methods

The study of ecology substantially predates the idea of environmental stewardship, and even predates many of the major anthropogenic disturbances (i.e. the increase in carbon emissions due to fossil fuel burning beginning in the Industrial Revolution) that necessitated the modern environmental movement. However, it is widely recognized that the study of ecology today is intimately connected with environmental issues such as climate change, habitat disturbance or fragmentation, biotic invasions, and species extinctions. Environmental advocacy clearly depends largely on ecological results, but the recent rise in environmental awareness has also shaped much of the field of ecology.

Results/Conclusions

This presentation explores the role environmental advocacy has played in the evolution of ecological science over the last half-century. In particular, I examine the effects of the rise of environmental awareness on the nature of ecological studies, on funding for ecological research, and on the perceived dichotomy of basic versus applied ecological research. I argue that, as a result of environmental advocacy and awareness, there is more institutional and social pressure from outside of academia for ecological studies to have environmental applications in the short term, and that in some circles within academia this has been met with an opposing pressure to pursue basic over applied research. I maintain that while we ecologists, as humans, have a responsibility to do all in our power to mitigate the harmful effects of our species on our environment, both basic and applied research are valuable toward this end. Either of these informs the other, and in general these are not mutually exclusive categories, but endpoints of a continuum of research.