1 Samuel M. Scheiner and Michael R. Willig, eds. 1. A General ...

spectacular growth. Many of the observations identified as the principles of Scheiner and Willig
(Table 1.3) have been recognized at various stages of development of ecology, but were not
collected methodically into a system of propositions. Once they are, their theoretical
significance becomes unambiguous. Whenever possible I will try to identify their first
articulations.
Biologists were interested in ecological questions well before the science of ecology
emerged as an identifiable discipline. Indeed, if one defined the domain of ecology as
emergence and interactions of ecological entities (organisms and supra-organismal formations
such as family groups, herds, or communities although emergence of organisms is an exception
as it falls into the domain of developmental biology) with each other and with their environment
(but see Scheiner and Willig 2008, also Chapter 1), many biological processes would be
included. Any consideration of surrounding biological phenomena is likely to involve some
ecology. Greek philosophers were interested in things that today fall within the scope of
ecology. Theophrastus developed the conception of an autonomous nature, interacting with man
and described various interrelationships among animals and between animals and their
environment as early as the 4th century BC (Ramalay, 1940). His accounts entitled “On the
Causes of Plants) represent the first known efforts to organize, interpret, and expand knowledge
of plant reproduction, requirements, and uses. These early interests in the relations between an
traits of organisms and the environment grew slowly. Initial questions were pragmatic and with
limited theoretical content. Naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries frequently had interest in
ecological interactions, even if such interactions were not their main focus. Darwin was acutely
aware of the importance of competition and predation, and made a spectacularly successful use
of these notions in developing the assumptions of evolutionary theory.
Systematic exploration of such pragmatic questions began in earnest in England. The
Rothamsted Experimental Station, founded in 1843, initiated a series of experiments between
1843 and 1856 that were aimed at a variety of applied, yet clearly ecological problems related to
agriculture.
Parallel to the practical concerns, ideas that we recognize as modern began to emerge as
well. The ecological concept of integrated communities of organisms first appeared in the 19th
century with the studies of A. Grisebach (1838), a German botanist. The importance of this
perspective was reflected in the need to define the discipline. In 1866, Haeckel recognized and
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