Search

Ecology has received many criticisms concerning its theoretical maturity, often on the grounds that it lacks laws and, therefore, a clear and unified theoretical background. We argue that the search for laws to understand ecological theory was prompted by the (perhaps inadvertent) adoption of an axiomatic perspective that traces back to syntactic and some semantic views of theory. We present examples showing how these views have a common logical structure, in which axioms can be interpreted as laws, even though there are semantic views that assume a more flexible perspective on theories. We then present, as an alternative, more pluralistic and process‐based approaches that fall under the umbrella of pragmatic views of theories. Under this view, a theory is an ever‐changing, context‐dependent, collective construct, and thus does not necessarily fit into pre‐defined logical structures such as those adopted by axiomatic views. We show that the diversity of models and structures found in ecological theories, as well as the way knowledge is produced within this field of science, makes ecology an exemplary candidate to be approached from a pragmatic perspective. Based on ecological succession theory as a case study, we illustrate how assuming a pragmatic view allows for new analyses that may foster our understanding of the theoretical structure and consequently further our understanding of ecological phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecology plays a central role in biology and deserves special attention in scientific education. Nonetheless, the teaching and learning of ecology face a number of difficulties. In order to tackle these difficulties, electronic games have recently been used to mediate ecology learning. This paper presents an electronic game that fulfills these gaps in order to make the students' work with ecological concepts more concrete, active, and systematic. The paper presents the computational model of the ecological system included in the game, based on a real ecological case, a sand dune ecosystem located in the semiarid Caatinga biome, namely, the sand dunes of the middle São Francisco River, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. It includes various ecological relationships between endemic lizards and the physical environment, preys, predators, cospecifics, and plants. The engine of the game simulates the physical conditions of the ecosystem (dune topography and climate conditions with their circadian and circannual cycles), its biota (plant species and animal species), and ecological relationships (predator-prey encounters, cospecific relationships). We also present results from one classroom study of a teaching sequence structured around Calangos, which showed positive outcomes regarding high school students' understanding of thermal regulation in ectothermic animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we explored the evolution of sociality in cursorial echimyids by comparing affiliation among three species of Trinomys and one species of Thrichomys. We captured specimens of Trinomys yonenagae, Trinomys albispinus minor, and Thrichomys apereoides in areas of the Brazilian semiarid Caatinga, and Trinomys iheringi denigratus in one area of Atlantic Forest. For each species, we recorded 12 intra-sexual dyadic encounters in a neutral arena (six between males and six between females) in order to test the hypothesis that species and sex influence level of affiliation. This response variable was assessed based on an affiliation index, calculated as the proportion of the total number of affiliative behaviors to the total number of social behaviors exhibited by the dyad during each encounter. Hypothesis test was performed by means of a parametric two-wayanova. The test was able to detect significant differences only among species, not among sexes. Trinomys yonenagae was the most affiliative species, while T. apereoides and T. albispinus minor were the most agonistic ones. Trinomys iheringi denigratus showed an intermediate pattern. We suggest, based on out-group comparison, that affiliation in Trinomys increased in the lineage containing T. iheringi denigratus and T. yonenagae and that higher affiliation in the last species can be adaptive to the life in the desert-like habitat where it lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]