Palaeoecology: Methods
نویسنده
چکیده
Paleoecology is based on the documentation of occurrences and abundances of taxa across time and space. Although methodologically similar to the techniques of neontological ecologists, the discipline is distinct in its integration of a deeper time axis into our understanding of the processes shaping the earth’s ecological patterns. Taphonomy is the study of the processes by which organic remains become incorporated into the fossil record. Since this record is both incomplete and biased, multiple taphonomic approaches have been developed to quantify the reliability of the ecological information it preserves. As such,a fundamental issue in paleoecologyrelates tothe sampling and counting of individuals. Although the nature of the preserving sediments often exerts the primary control on how data are collected, techniques exist to standardize sampling and counting strategies to maximize our ability to detect ecological patterns and gain insight into the processes shaping both ancient and modern communities.
منابع مشابه
Integrating models with data in ecology and palaeoecology: advances towards a model-data fusion approach.
It is increasingly being recognized that global ecological research requires novel methods and strategies in which to combine process-based ecological models and data in cohesive, systematic ways. Model-data fusion (MDF) is an emerging area of research in ecology and palaeoecology. It provides a new quantitative approach that offers a high level of empirical constraint over model predictions ba...
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Despite what their names might suggest, ecology and palaeoecology have progressed historically as well separated disciplines. This unfortunate disjunction is analyzed here from a theoretical point of view. Among the factors that have facilitated the separation are: 1) the past-present dissociation characteristic of the human mind, 2) the diversity of fields of provenance of palaeoecologists, 3)...
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