Details

Subject(s)

• Spatial ecology—History [Browse]
• Ecology—History [Browse]

Editor

• Bont, Raf de, 1977- [Browse]
• Lachmund, Jens [Browse]

Contributor

• Bont, Raf de, 1977- [Browse]
• Lachmund, Jens [Browse]

Series

• Routledge studies in the history of science, technology, and medicine ; 29. [More in this series]
• Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine ; 29

Summary note

Throughout its history, the discipline of ecology has always been profoundly entangled with the history of space and place. On the one hand, ecology is a field science that has thrived on the study of concrete spatial entities, such as islands, forests or rivers. These spaces are the workplaces in which ecological phenomena are identified, observed and experimented on. They provide both epistemic opportunities and constraints that structure the agenda and the analytical sensibilities of ecological researchers. On the other hand, ecological knowledge and practices have become important resources through which spaces and places are classified, delineated, explained, experienced and managed. The impact of these activities reaches far beyond the realms of the ecological discipline. Many ecological concepts such as "biotopes," "ecosystems" and "the biosphere" have become entities that widely resonate in public life and policy making. This book explores the mutual entanglement between space and knowledge-making in the history of ecology. Its first goal is to explore to which extent a spatial perspective can shed new light on the history of ecological science. Second, it uses ecology as a critical site to gain broader insights into the history of the environment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Via a series of case studies - discussing topics that range from ecological field stations in the early-twentieth century Caribbean over wisent breeding in Nazi Germany to computer modelling in North American deserts - the book offers a tour through the changing landscapes of modern ecology.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Introduction : knowing nature, making space / Raf de Bont and Jens Lachmund
• Mapping Heimat : amateur natural history and plant ecology in imperial Germany / Nils Güttler
• Life zones : the rise and decline of a theory of the geographic distribution of species / Roderick P. Neumann
• A laboratory for tropical ecology : colonial models and American science at Cinchona, Jamaica / Megan Raby
• Field stations and the problem of scale : local, regional, and global at the Desert Lab / Jeremy Vetter
• Ecology and rehabilitation : the west highland survey / Mark Toogood
• Ecosystem simulation as a practice of emplacement : the Desert Biome Project, 1970-1974 / Etienne S. Benson
• The city as an ecosystem : Paul Duvigneaud and the ecological study of Brussels / Jens Lachmund
• Extinct in the wild : finding a place for the European bison, 1919-1952 / Raf De Bont
• Islands and bioregions : global reserve design models and the making of national parks, 1960-2000 / Simone Schleper and Hans Schouwenburg
• Space, place, land, and sea : the "ecological discovery" of the global Wadden Sea / Anna-Katharina Wöbse
• Epilogue / Raf de Bont and Jens Lachmund.

Show 9 more Contents items

ISBN

• 9781138727038 (hardcover : alkaline paper)
• 1138727032 (hardcover : alkaline paper)

LCCN

2017001658

OCLC

992576014

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...