MacArthur, R. H. (1972). Geographical ecology: patterns in the distribution of species (Introduction). Princeton University Press.
To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to accumulate facts, and to do the science of geographical ecology is to search for patterns of plant and animal life that can be put on a map. The person best equipped to do this is the naturalist who loves to note changes in bird life up a mountainside, or changes in plat life from mainland to island, or changes in butterflies from temperate to tropics. But not all naturalists want to do science; many take refuge in nature's complexity as a justification to oppose any search for patterns. This book is addressed to those who want to do science. Doing science is not such a barrier to feeling or such a dehumanizing influence as is often made out. It does not take the beauty from nature. The only rule of scientific method are honest observations and accurate logic, To be great science it must also be guided by a judgement, almost an instinct, for what is worth studying. No one should feel that honesty and accuracy guided by imagination have any power to rake away nature's beauty.
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