Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-tdptf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-18T21:10:42.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Different Meaning in Different Sizes: Ecology in Size Scales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2022

Tamar Schneider*
Affiliation:
Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Abstract

Any given ecosystem includes macro- and micro-organismal ecology. I examine the concept of stability and its meaning in these two size scales. Historically, the stability concept follows species population dynamics and equilibrium. In micro-ecology, however, classification is rare and, in the majority of cases, not possible. Therefore, the microbial taxonomic composition is regarded in a nonspecific way, as opposed to animals and plant communities. Such different consideration leads to the emphasis on functional stability in micro-ecology versus the structural in macro-ecology. I discuss the implication of these differences in meanings and the possibilities of integrating them.

Type
Symposia Paper
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baquero, Fernando, Coque, Teresa M., Carlos Galán, Juan, and Martinez, Jose L.. 2021. “The Origin of Niches and Species in the Bacterial World.” Frontiers Microbiology 12:657986. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.657986 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elton, Charles S. 1958. The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. London: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuddington, Kim. 2001. “The ‘Balance of Nature’ Metaphor and Equilibrium in Population Ecology.” Biology & Philosophy 16:463–79. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011910014900 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
deLaplante, Kevin, and Picasso, Valentin. 2011. “The Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Debate in Ecology.” In Handbook of The Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Ecology, edited by Brown, Bryson, deLaplante, Kevin, and Peacock, Kent, 169200. San Diego: North-Holland.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ereshefsky, Marc. 1992. “Eliminative Pluralism.” Philosophy of Science 59 (4):671–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/188136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibbons, Sean. 2017. “Microbial community ecology: Function over phylogeny.Nature Ecology & Evolution 1:0032. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-016-0032 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, Jessica, Bohannan, Brendon J.M., and Whitaker, Rachel. 2008. “Microbial Biogeography: From Taxonomy to Traits.” Science 320 (5879):1039–043. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1153475 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
He, Yan, Caporaso, Gregory J., Xiao-Tao Jiang, Hua-Fang Sheng, Huse, Susan M., Jai Ram Rideout, Robert C. Edgar, Evguenia Kopylova, Walters, William A., Knight, Rob, and Hong-Wei, Zhou. 2015. “Stability of operational taxonomic units: an important but neglected property for analyzing microbial diversity.” Microbiome 3:20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-015-0081-x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hugenholtz, Philip, Skarshewski, Adam, and Parks, Donovan H.. 2016. “Genome-Based Microbial Taxonomy Coming of Age.” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology 8 (6):a018085. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a018085 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jax, Kurt. 2005. “‘Function’ and ‘functioning’ in ecology: what does it mean?Oikos 111 (3):641–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2005.13851.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Justus, James. 2008. “Complexity, Diversity, and Stability.” In A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, first edition, edited by Sahotra, Sarkar and Plutynski, Anya, 321–49. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Konopka, Allen. 2009. “What is microbial community ecology?The ISME Journal 3:1223–30. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2009.88 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, Dian, Francesca Fiegna, Volker Behrends, Bundy, Jacob G., Phillimore, Albert B., Bell, Thomas, and Barraclough, Timothy. 2012. “Species Interactions Alter Evolutionary Responses to a Novel Environment.” PLoS Biology 10 (5):e1001330. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001330 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacArthur, Robert. 1955. “Fluctuations of animal populations, and a measure of community stability.” Ecology 36 (3):533–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/1929601 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikkelson, Gregory H. 2009. “Diversity-Stability Hypothesis.” In Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, edited by Baird Callicott, J. and Frodeman, Robert, 255–56. New York: Macmillan Reference.Google Scholar
Mony, Cendrine, Philippe Vandenkoornhuyse, Brendan J.M. Bohannan, Kabir Peay, and Leibold, Mathew A. 2020. “Landscape of Opportunities for Microbial Ecology Research.” Frontiers in Microbiology 11:561427. https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2020.561427 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Odenbaugh, Jay. 2001. “Ecological Stability, Model Building, and Environmental Policy: A Reply to Some of the Pessimism.” Philosophy of Science 68 (3):S493S505. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3080968 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odum, Eugene P. 1953. Fundamentals of Ecology. Philadelphia: Saunders.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Maureen. 2014. Philosophy of Microbiology. Cambridge: Cambridge University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelletier, Fanie, Garant, Dany, and Hendry, Andrew P.. 2009. “Eco-evolutionary dynamics.” Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B 364:1483–89. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0027 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rainey, Paul B., and Quistad, Steven D.. 2020. “Toward a dynamical understanding of microbial communities.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 375:20190248. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0248 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quistad, Steven D., Doulcier, Guilhem, and Rainey, Paul B.. 2020. “Experimental manipulation of selfish genetic elements links genes to microbial community function.” Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B 375:20190681. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0681 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slipko, Katarzyna., Marano, Roberto BM, Eddie Cytryn, Valentina Markus, Markus Wögerbauer, Jörg Krampe, Jurkevitch, Edouard, and Kreuzinger, Norbert. 2021. “Effects of subinhibitory quinolone concentrations on functionality, microbial community composition, and abundance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and qnrS in activated sludge.” Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 9 (1):104783. ISSN 2213-3437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2020.104783 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulanowicz, Robert, E. 2018. “Biodiversity, functional redundancy, and system stability: subtle connections.” Journal of the Royal Society Interface 15:20180367. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2018.0367 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westcott, Sarah L., and Schloss, Patrick D.. 2015. “De novo clustering methods outperform reference-based methods for assigning 16S rRNA gene sequences to operational taxonomic units.” PeerJ 3:e1487. https://peerj.com/articles/1487/ CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed