"This book had its origin when, about five years ago, an ecologist (MacArthur) and a taxonomist and zoogeographer (Wilson) began a dialogue about common interests in biogeography. The ideas and the language of the two specialties seemed initially so different as to cast doubt on the usefulness of the endeavor. But we had faith in the ultimate unity of population biology, and this book is the result. Now we both call ourselves biogeographers and are unable to see any real distinction between biogeography and ecology.
A great deal of faith in the feasibility of a general theory is still required. We do not seriously believe that the particular formulations advanced in the chapters to follow will fit for very long the exacting results of future empirical investigation. We hope instead that they will contribute to the stimulation of new forms of theoretical and empirical studies, which will lead in turn to a stronger general theory and, as R. A. Fisher once put it, “a tradition of mathematical work devoted to biological problems, comparable to the researches upon which a mathematical physicist can draw in the resolution of special difficulties.” Already some strains have appeared in the structure. These have been discussed frankly, if not always satisfactorily, in the text.
We owe the strains, as well as many improvements, to colleagues who read the entire first draft. We are very grateful to John T. Bonner, William L. Brown, Jr., Walter Elsasser, Carl Gans, Henry Horn, Robert F. Inger, E. G. Leigh, Richard Levins, Daniel A. Livingstone, Monte Lloyd, Thomas Schoener, and Daniel Simberloff for this favor. We are also indebted to William H. Bossert, Philip J. Darlington, Bassett Maguire, Ernst Mayr, and Lawrence B. Slobodkin for critically reading selected portions of the manuscript; and to J. Bruce Falls, Kenneth Crowell, Bassett Maguire, Ruth Patrick, and Bernice G. Schubert for adding new materials. A preliminary draft of the book was used as a text in graduate seminars at Harvard University and Princeton University in the fall of 1966 and has thus benefited from a testing in the classroom.
The illustrations were prepared by John Kyrk. The typescript and much of the bibliography and index were prepared by Kathleen Horton with the assistance of Muriel Randall. Our personal research projects have been generously supported from the beginning by grants from the National Science Foundation and our respective home institutions."
Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson, Dezembro de 1966.
Apreciem sem moderação.
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