BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



Vol. 29, pp. 369-374 JUNE 30, 1918 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF PALEO-ECOLOGY 



BY EEEDERIC E. CLEMENTS ^ 



(Head before Hie Paleoniological Soeiety January 2, 191S) 



CONTENTS 



Page 



The province or function of ecology 369 



The utilization of ecology 370 



Synthetic character of paleo-ecology 370 



Methods of employing previous ecological results 371 



The attack on developmental correlation 374 



Summary 374 



The Province or Function or Ecology 



At the outset it seems desirable to emphasize the view that ecology is 

 not a new division of biology, or indeed a division at all. It is merely a 

 point of view, a new method of attack, which has been as natural a re- 

 bound from the intensive laboratory research of the last twenty-five years 

 as this was a logical reaction from the more diffusive studies of natural 

 history. The viewpoint of ecology inheres in the "oikos/^ or habitat, as 

 the motive force in the life processes of plants and animals, both as indi- 

 viduals and as communities. As a consequence of this vital relation 

 ecology is essentially synthetic. It is deeply concerned with soil and cli- 

 mate, but never as ends in themselves, merely as intrinsic parts of basic 

 biological processes. While the ecologist can not ignore the static forms 

 of plant and animal life, he is interested in them chiefly as the end-forms 

 of responsive processes. In short, ecology deals primarily with processes 

 and is inherently and universally dynamic. This means that it sliould 

 be experimental in the highest degree, and that development is tlic one 

 great clue which it must follow througliout. As a result, it must be 

 quantitative in method, beginning with the habitat in whicli measure- 

 ments are rchitiv(^ly simple, and running through individual and com- 

 munity responses in Avliich they are difficult.' Further, the name itself 



1 Manuscript received by the Secretary of tlie Society Marcli 7, 1918. 



(360) 



