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Ecology or mythology? Are Whittaker's "gradient analysis" curves reliable evidence of continuity in vegetation?

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Author

Summary, in English

Whittaker was one of the leading ecologists of his generation, introducing several ideas to plant community ecology. One approach involved deriving environmental-correlation curves in attempts to determine how the abundance of individual species changed along environmental gradients. These curves have been used extensively in the ecological literature of the last 50 years. However, there has been no examination of whether the methods used were sufficiently rigorous to justify Whittaker's conclusions, let alone the very widespread use of them by others to draw general conclusions. Whittaker's curves were based on large amounts of fieldwork. However, the sampling methods used were subjective, and the analyses of the data were often circular. When the curves are compared to the data on which they were based, it can be seen that many of the features that Whittaker claimed to see in his graphs are not supported. Whittaker's main conclusions may have been correct but his studies do not stand up as pieces of scientific work.

Publishing year

2004

Language

English

Pages

245-253

Publication/Series

Preslia

Volume

76

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Czech Botanical Society

Topic

  • Physical Geography

Keywords

  • species
  • gradient analysis
  • community ecology
  • environmental gradients
  • Whittaker's curves
  • abundance

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0032-7786