8 September 1995

History of Ecology
• Effects of world exploration on the development of ecology
• Nature of the European flora and fauna
• Attempts by early scientists such as Linnaeus and Ray to bring order to the concept of biological classification
• Early work in biogeography. Temperature and rainfall as determinants of flora and fauna.
• Nineteenth century work by German botanists on plant ecology
• Attempts to mathematically characterize populations and inter-organismal interaction
• Effects of evolutionary theory on ecological thought. Darwin as an ecologist
• American contributions to ecology
  1. Stephen Forbes-The Lake as a Microcosm
  2. Cowles on the Indiana/Michigan Sand Dunes
  3. Gleason on the nature of plant associations
• Growth of a statistical approach
• Ecology after WW2