Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on the work of amateurs, professionals, administrators and others connected to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, during its early years. Extending the Latour-Callon model of interessement, two major activities are central for translating between viewpoints: standardization of methods, and the development of 'boundary objects'. Boundary objects are both adaptable to different viewpoints and robust enough to maintain identity across them. We distinguish four types of boundary objects: repositories, ideal types, coincident boundaries and standardized forms.

and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39

This example is provided so that non-theorists may see actual applications of the theory previously described. The Dickcissel sex ratio is employed as an indirect index of suitability. A sex ratio index was found to be correlated positively with density. This is consistent with the hypothesis that territorial behavior in the males of this species limits their density. This study provides a valid example of how the problem can be approached and offers a first step in the eventual identification of the role of territorial behavior in the habitat distribution of a common species.

/pdf/on-territorial-behavior-and-other-factors-influencing-6u6llonho3.pdf

On territorial behavior and other factors influencing habitat distribution in birds

Predicting the extinction of single populations or species requires ecological and evolutionary information. Primary demographic factors affecting population dynamics include social structure, life history variation caused by environmental fluctuation, dispersal in spatially heterogeneous environments, and local extinction and colonization. In small populations, inbreeding can greatly reduce the average individual fitness, and loss of genetic variability from random genetic drift can diminish future adaptability to a changing environment. Theory and empirical examples suggest that demography is usually of more immediate importance than population genetics in determining the minimum viable sizes of wild populations. The practical need in biological conservation for understanding the interaction of demographic and genetic factors in extinction may provide a focus for fundamental advances at the interface of ecology and evolution.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/241/4872/1455.full.pdf

Genetics and demography in biological conservation

The Allee effect describes a scenario in which populations at low numbers are affected by a positive relationship between population growth rate and density, which increases their likelihood of extinction The importance of this dynamic process in ecology has been under-appreciated and recent evidence now suggests that it might have an impact on the population dynamics of many plant and animal species Studies of the causal mechanisms generating Allee effects in small populations could provide a key to understanding their dynamics

Inverse density dependence and the Allee effect

patry of related populations would therefore tend to increase density of species in a region as a whole. It will be suggested below that this is a factor in the increase of species densities in regions of high topographic relief. I do not, however, know of any evidence that it is more general or more effective in the tropics." I believe that the climatic regimes discussed below, and the reactions of organisms to them, indicate that topographic barriers may be more effective in the tropics. Mountain barriers and their temperature gradients in Central America, as contrasted to those in North America, are used as examples; but it is believed that the central idea equally applies to other tropical areas, types of barriers, and physical parameters. There are three thoughts central to the argument to be developed: (1) in respect to temperature, it is the temperature gradient across a mountain range which determines its effectiveness as a barrier, rather than the absolute height; (2) in Central America, terrestrial temperature regimes are generally more uniform than North American ones, and differ in their patterns of overlap across geographic barriers; and (3) it can be assumed that animals and plants are evolutionarily adapted to, and/or have the ability to acclimate to, the temperatures normally encountered in their temporal and geographic habitat (or microhabitat). MOUNTAIN TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS

/pdf/why-mountain-passes-are-higher-in-the-tropics-2ugc4c8762.pdf

Why Mountain Passes are Higher in the Tropics

Principles of Animal Ecology

DONCASTER, L. 1907. Anatomischer Auzeiger, 31: 168-169. ~lAKNING, F.]. 1948. Sex determination in the honey-bee, 100 pp., 9 figs., Stoke-on-Trent. 1949a. Microscope, 7: 175-180. 1949b. Microscope, 7: 209--211. 1949c. Microscope, 7: 237-241. 1949d. Microscope, 7: 259. 1950a. Microscope, 8: 2 pp. 1950b. Microscope, 8: 1 p. MEVES, F. 1907. Arch. mik. Anat., 70: 414491. NACHTSHEBI, H. 1913. Arch. Zellforch., 11: 169-241. PETRUNKEWITSCH, A. 1901. Zoo!' jahrb., Anat. u. Ont., 14: 57~8. SANDERSON, A. R., AND D. W. HALL. 1948. Nature (London), 162: 34-35.

O. Park

Papers

Principles of Animal Ecology

Principles of animal ecology

Comment on Ecology and Evolution@@@Principles of Animal Ecology.