Charles Sutherland Elton - Intellectual Heritage

Intellectual Heritage

In 1927, Elton published his now classic book Animal Ecology. This book outlines the important principles of ecological studies of animal behaviour and life history, such as food chains, the size of food items, the ecological niche and the concept of a pyramid of numbers as a method of representing the structure of an ecosystem in terms of feeding relationships. In later works on the niche theory, Elton’s definition – the Eltonian niche – in terms of functional attributes of organisms (or its position in the trophic net), has been viewed by some authors as opposed to Joseph Grinnell’s earlier definition emphasizing states of the environment suitable for the species. However, others have argued that there are more similarities than dissimilarities between the two versions of the niche concept.

After the Second World War, Elton became much more concerned with the impact of invasive species on natural ecosystems. His 1958 book The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants founded invasion ecology as a separate sub-discipline. The first part of the book focuses on the invader species and their mode of transport into the new environment. The second part of the book focuses on the struggle between invasive species and the indigenous, though some invaders enter habitats with no prior species filling their specific niche. The final part of The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants deals with the issue of conservation and its importance in order to maintain species diversity.