McGill Brian J, Enquist Brian J, Weiher Evan, Westoby Mark
Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2006 Apr;21(4):178-85. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2006.02.002. Epub 2006 Feb 17.
There is considerable debate about whether community ecology will ever produce general principles. We suggest here that this can be achieved but that community ecology has lost its way by focusing on pairwise species interactions independent of the environment. We assert that community ecology should return to an emphasis on four themes that are tied together by a two-step process: how the fundamental niche is governed by functional traits within the context of abiotic environmental gradients; and how the interaction between traits and fundamental niches maps onto the realized niche in the context of a biotic interaction milieu. We suggest this approach can create a more quantitative and predictive science that can more readily address issues of global change.
关于群落生态学是否会产生通用原则存在相当多的争论。我们在此表明这是可以实现的，但群落生态学已经迷失了方向，因为它专注于独立于环境的成对物种相互作用。我们断言，群落生态学应回归到强调四个主题，这四个主题通过一个两步过程联系在一起：在非生物环境梯度背景下，基本生态位如何由功能性状决定；以及在生物相互作用环境背景下，性状与基本生态位之间的相互作用如何映射到实际生态位上。我们认为这种方法可以创建一门更具定量性和预测性的科学，从而能够更轻松地应对全球变化问题。
