Mmmm… integrated

I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging as much this weekend; I took out 10 books from the library (including Here Be Dragons, The Ancestor’s Tale, The Emperor’s Embrace, Born Free, Upright and other tomes of natural-history goodness) so I’ve been reading up a storm. Anyway, I’ll likely write more about this later, but I think that the fields of ecology and evolution should become more integrated, or at least open the lines of communication more. Energy cycling, soil composition, feeding patterns, etc. can all help shed light upon how life is continuing to change and evolve, and it’s my personal belief that we cannot fully understand evolution without ecology nor ecology without evolution. Evolution does not occur in a vacuum, and understanding changing ecology is vital to understanding how life changes, just as we cannot hope to understand changing ecology without embracing evolution. Although I will likely never know enough to be a specialist in any of these fields, I’m trying my best to learn the basics of soil science, climatology, etc. so I can keep important concepts in mind while pondering evolution. Not only do scientists need to communicate more effectively with the public, but to communicate better with fellow scientists in relevant fields as well. If we cannot do this, hasn’t science become more like stamp collecting than understanding nature?