Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7552261 | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences | 2016 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Over the past decade an increasing number of ecologists have begun to frame their work as a contribution to the emerging research field of movement ecology. This field's primary object of research is the movement track, which is usually operationalized as a series of discrete “steps and stops” that represent a portion of an animal's “lifetime track.” Its practitioners understand their field as dependent on recent technical advances in tracking organisms and analyzing their movements. By making movement their primary object of research, rather than simply an expression of deeper biological phenomena, movement ecologists are able to generalize across the movement patterns of a wide variety of species and to draw on statistical techniques developed to model the movements of non-living things. Although it can trace its roots back to a long tradition of statistical models of movement, the field relies heavily on metaphors from genomics; in particular, movement tracks have been seen as similar to DNA sequences. Though this has helped movement ecology consolidate around a shared understanding of movement, the field may need to broaden its understanding of movement beyond the sequence if it is to realize its potential to address urgent concerns such as biodiversity loss.
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
Authors
Etienne S. Benson,