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Relationship between conservation biology and ecology shown through machine reading of 32,000 articles
Author(s) -
Hintzen Rogier E.,
Papadopoulou Marina,
Mounce Ross,
BanksLeite Cristina,
Holt Robert D.,
Mills Morena,
T. Knight Andrew,
Leroi Armand M.,
Rosindell James
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/cobi.13435
Subject(s) - conservation biology , humanities , ecology , reading (process) , skepticism , politics , geography , environmental ethics , biology , political science , philosophy , epistemology , law
Conservation biology was founded on the idea that efforts to save nature depend on a scientific understanding of how it works. It sought to apply ecological principles to conservation problems. We investigated whether the relationship between these fields has changed over time through machine reading the full texts of 32,000 research articles published in 16 ecology and conservation biology journals. We examined changes in research topics in both fields and how the fields have evolved from 2000 to 2014. As conservation biology matured, its focus shifted from ecology to social and political aspects of conservation. The 2 fields diverged and now occupy distinct niches in modern science. We hypothesize this pattern resulted from increasing recognition that social, economic, and political factors are critical for successful conservation and possibly from rising skepticism about the relevance of contemporary ecological theory to practical conservation.