Abstract
In the preceding chapter I have noted that there are no examples of reduction of laws and theories about communities and ecosystems for the simple reason that there are no general laws and theories about communities and ecosystems. I have also noted that one particular cause of this might be that the concepts of community and ecosystem have not been defined adequately and unambiguously. The terms ‘community’ and ‘ecosystem’ are being used for a wide variety of objects at different levels of organization (see, amongst others, Shrader-Frechette und McCoy 1993). Considering that one of ecology’s central goals is to describe and explain the structure of communities and ecosystems, as given by such properties as species number and composition, this situation is deplorable.
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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Looijen, R.C. (2000). Ecological Communities: Conceptual Problems and Definition. In: Holism and Reductionism in Biology and Ecology. Episteme, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9560-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9560-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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