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Development of ecology in Japan, with special reference to the role of Kinji Imanishi
Author(s) -
Itô Yosiaki
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/bf02347158
Subject(s) - ecology , competition (biology) , biological dispersal , criticism , interspecific competition , primatology , population , population ecology , natural selection , geography , environmental ethics , biology , sociology , political science , demography , philosophy , law
The development of ecology in Japan, especially after the Meiji Restoration (1868), is briefly reviewed. Pioneering studies of Hiratsuka, on the calorimetric budget of a silkworm population, and Motomura, on the relation between numbers of species and individuals in biotic communities, are noteworthy. A critical examination of his role in ecology in Japan reveals Kinji Imanishi to have played pivotal roles in leading Japanese population ecologists to realize the importance of dispersal in population regulation, and leading to the worldwide revival of field primatology. Although Imanishi's later (popular) writings, in which he completely negated the role of competion and natural selection, have justifiably drawn much criticism, his earlier critique of the competition‐Almighty paradigms may be re‐evaluated in the light of recent discussions on interspecific competition and community equilibrium.