THEORY AND MODEL OR ART AND TECHNOLOGY IN ECOLOGY

Ecology is the science of the 'house'. This paper will compare the difference between working with the 'house' in a technological or in an artistic manner and address the question of the alternative approaches to the science of ecology embodied in the terms theory and model. It will be argued that modelling can serve to illustrate particular situations just as technology is used when building a specific house. However, modelling cannot contribute to our idea of what a house is. Such an abstraction is the art of science which advances our deeper understanding. Because of the complexity of an ecosystem, it is unlikely that we can find system properties by fitting systems together piece by piece. Such properties are more likely to be found by directly investigating the system as a whole. We therefore plead that more attention should be given to abstract theories about ecosystem functioning rather than to modelling it. A guidance in looking for ecological theories can be the 'physics envy'. But we should not envy the physicists the accuracy of their theories, which certainly is not there all the time, but the beauty of the power in the simplicity of their theories. It is time that art and beauty become elements in ecological research as well. © 1990.