From Karban and Huntzinger’s How to Do Ecology: A Concise Handbook: Unlike some other scientific disciplines, ecological principles are not universal. Finding a single counterexample will make us rethink our working hypothesis about the force of gravity. However, finding a single counterexample does not disprove our ideas about competition. Similarly, unlike other disciplines, ecological hypotheses […]

From Karban and Huntzinger’s How to Do Ecology: A Concise Handbook: Since manipulative experiments in ecology today are almost always conducted at spatial and temporal scales smaller than our ideal, it is worth considering what effect this has on our worldview. Small-scale experiments have led us as a group to believe in local determinism, that […]