EMERGENCE OF THE DISCIPLINE OF URBAN ECOLOGY
The science of ecology The emergence of ecology as a distinct discipline occurred in
Europe and North America at the end of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth
cen- tury. Ecological concepts such as the ‘balance of nature’ have been around in
different forms since Aristotle’s day (Egerton 1983, 1985; McIntosh 1985). The ecological
notion that nature is in a balanced state under the auspices of a creator was fundamen-
tal to the work of eighteenth century naturalists such as the father of modern taxonomy,
Carl Linnaeus (Egerton 1983, 1985; McIntosh 1985). In the nineteenth century
distinguished naturalists such as Malthus, De Candolle, Lyell, and Darwin articulated the
role of competition for resources in controlling population growth and as a driver
oextinction. These concepts form the theoretical cor- nerstones of modern ecology and
evolutionary biol- ogy (Egerton 1983, 1985; McIntosh 1985).
It is generally agreed that the publication of the first books that describe the study of
ecology in the late 1800s and the early 1900s mark the establishment of the new scientific
discipline of ecology (McIntosh 1985). Ecology was initially considered a fad by other
biologists, but developed rapidly in the twen- tieth century into a legitimate and
important scien- tific discipline (McIntosh 1985). Early ecologists simply defined ecology
as ‘the study of organisms and their environment’ (McIntosh 1985).
There have been many modifica- tions of this definition over the years (McIntosh 1985;
Likens 1992; Krebs 2001), but I believe the definition below proposed by Likens (1992)
encom- passes the current scope of the discipline: ‘The scientific study of the processes
influenc- ing the distribution and abundance of organ- isms, the interactions among
organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of
energy and matter.’ (Likens 1992, pg 8.) Today, ecological studies examine complex
systems at a variety of spatial scales ranging from individual organisms to our entire planet
(Likens 1992).
A number of subdisciplines have been identified within the discipline of ecology that focus
on differ- ent proportions of the physical (abiotic) and biotic environment (Fig. 1, Likens
1992). These range from the subdisciplines of bio-geochemistry and ecosys- tem ecology
that include elements of meteorology, geology, and hydrology (i.e. more physical
sciences) to the subdisciplines of behavioural and evolution- ary ecology that involve
more traditional biological sciences such as systematics, genetics, and physiol- ogy (Likens
1992). To obtain a detailed understand- ing of the breadth of the science of ecology, I
encourage readers to examine the textbooks by Odum et al. (2004) and Begon et al.
(2006).
The myth of the balance of nature
Egerton (1993) describes the fundamental role that the concept of the ‘balance of nature’
has played in the development of the discipline of ecology Around the same time as proto-
ecologists articulated key ecological principles, George Perkins Marsh published Man and
Nature (Marsh 1864). In this book Marsh proposed that the world, (i.e. nature) main-
tained a state of stability (i.e. balance) unless dis- turbed by the actions of man (Lowenthal
1990; Turner & Meyer 1993). This view of the world advanced the belief that natural
disturbances such as hurricanes or fires, and therefore human actions, had little or no
long-term influence on the structure and function of natural ecosystems for nature was
in ‘balance’.
This has been traditionally referred to by ecologists as the ‘equilibrium paradigm’ that is
embodied in the cul- tural metaphor ‘balance of nature’ (Simberloff 1982; Pickett et al.
1992). This paradigm has had a profound effect on the development of the discipline of
ecol- ogy as well as the development of conservation strat- egies, for it implies that to
effectively study ‘nature’ or successfully conserve nature, ecologists and con-
servationists had to locate study sites far from human actions or explicitly exclude humans
from conserva- tion areas.
An examination of ecology and conserva- tion textbooks, journals, and guidelines of
granting agencies that supported ecological work over the first 60 years of the twentieth
century reveals a paucity of information on humans and human domi- nated ecosystems,
especially in North America (Pickett & McDonnell 1993; Collins et al. 2000). In fact, Rees
(1997) states that in Western industrial cul- tures humans are traditionally not viewed as
biologi- cal beings that are part of the ecosystem.
Thus, many students and practitioners of the discipline of ecology, especially those
involved in basic research, were compelled to treat humans as external to the systems
they studied. Consequently, for much of the twenti- eth century the discipline of ecology
contributed rel- atively little information to our understanding of the ecology of human
settlements. Sukopp (1998) states that some biological researchers viewed cities as ‘anti-
life’ (i.e. without nature) for they supported few plants and animals. Those organisms that
did sur- vive had distribution patterns that were merely coin- cidental and were thus
considered undeserving of study (Sukopp 1998).
There were exceptions to this exclusion of human- built environments as subjects of
ecology, especially in Asia (Numata 1982) and Europe (Gilbert 1989; Sukopp 2002).
Sukopp (2002) provides an excellent overview of the early vegetation studies con- ducted
in European cities, while also noting the numerous applied research efforts on air
pollution (‘Rauchschadenforschung’), soil contamination, bioclimatology, lake
rehabilitation, and on human health and welfare. Much of this early biological, physical,
and sociological research conducted in cit- ies in Europe was problem oriented and
focused on improving the human condition. Indeed, similar applied research on land and
water degradation and pollution effects was also conducted in North America and other
cities around world over the same period, but was generally not considered under the
umbrella of the emerging field of urban ecology. Instead, they formed the foundations of
the new discipline of environmental science (e.g. envi- ronmental chemistry and soil
science, and toxicol- ogy, etc). An important point here is that the ‘balance of nature’
paradigm significantly affected basic and theoretical ecology research in human-
dominated landscapes, but it had little or no effect on applied research focused on solving
practical problems in cities and towns.
