Beyond Equilibria : Historical Approaches to Ecology and Evolution

Ecologists and evolutionary biologists, especially those with theoretical and mathematical leanings, have tended to dismiss historical approaches as descriptive, smacking of particularities, allowing few generalizations (or even being untestable), and even antithetical to scientific explanation.By contrast, the concept of biological equilibrium pervades every aspect of ecology and evolution, from the popular notion of the 'balance of nature' to sophisticated mathematical analyses of critical points in the state space of scientific models.This novel book explains the problems associated with an over-reliance on equilibrium-centred explanations, creating a persuasive argument that an explicit consideration of history - i.e. looking beyond the equilibrium - will often lead to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of almost every eco-evolutionary system.The author introduces the concept of 'flavours' of history - the variety of ways in which history can play a critical role in biological pr