Ważniejsze osiągnięcia ekologii polskiej na tle trendów rozwojowych w tej gałęzi biologii

Petrusewicz, Kazimierz

doi:ISSN 0013-2969

Download

Title: Ważniejsze osiągnięcia ekologii polskiej na tle trendów rozwojowych w tej gałęzi biologii

Abstract:

The most reliable measure of achievements in science (and consequently in ecology) is the degree to wihich they influence mans activities understood in a wide sense, that is, to include practical, social, cultural and scientific activities. The influence of evaluated studies on scientific activity may vary considerably, for instance it may be the repetition, extension or oven refutation of certain opinions. It may also be a borrowing of ideas, assistance with methods, the putting of question etc. After a short and general description of the development of ecology, the author points to studies on the laws and regularities of the functioning from a given point of view of differentiated parts of the biosphere, on the functional units of the biosphere, that is, of units including both living and dead ,organic and inorganic components of the biosphere, as the contemporary and future trends in this field. The ecosystem is a collective functional unit, the main form of the function and way of life of the ecosystems being energy flow and circulation of matter. Contemporary ecology is examination of the ecosystem as an energetically open system capable of persistence (self-regulation). The contemporary and future trends in ecology consists in the system approach to the units examined. This approach formed after incorporating in biocenology and the science of populations the idea of productivity, consisting in basic measures being based not only on units referring to space but also to time: the intensivity of a process in a given time interval, e.g. production, energy flow (assimilation), dispersal of energy over vital processes (respiration) etc. The basic measures of state and functioning are abundance (state), production (amount of organic matter produced in a unit of time) and dispersion of energy to cover living expenditure of organisms (respiration). rhus measures of the functioning of ecosystems are not only abundance and production, but intensity of metabolism of their biotic components. The development of bioenergetic studies is connected with this. Examination of the life of ecosystems is intended not only as a means of obtaining knowledge and not only for the purpose of forecasting changes in functioning, but as theoretical basis for planning and creating ecological systems more beneficial to man. Progressive ecological research is thus a theoretical basis for rational utilization and protection of the biosphere. ; The chief achievement of ecology in Poland is considered to be the creation of the Polish school of ecological thought, the general characteristic of which is examination of laws and regularities governing processes taking place in ecological systems. These systems are treated as functional collective units possessing a structure and processes conditioned by this structure: the basic feature of the organization (structure and function) of the ecological systems examined is the energy flow through them and circulation of matter. It is a difficult matter to measure the creation of a ,,school of scientific thought'', but there can be no doubt of the existence of Polish ecological thought and it occupies an honourable place on an international scale in relation to many problems. The sources of the Polish ecological school are many and varied. Its inception can be traced to the fifties, from the studies made by a comparatively small group of young researchers working in the Institute of Ecology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, chiefly concerned witlh population and hydrobiocenotic questions. The concentration of the work of terrestrial ecologists and hydrobiologists in one place proved a great stimulus to the ecosystem approach of the former. As a result terrestrial studies of the energy balances of ecological systems were initiated in Poland earlier than the popularization of the concept of such studies by the International Biological Programme. Polish ecological thought gained strength from the crystallization and active development in Poland of research in physiological ecology and ecological physiology. The wide-scale cooperation of a large number of scientific centres stimulated by IBP has also played an important part in the shaping of the Polish ecological school. The fact is significant here that Polish ecological thought is represented almost entirely by the postwar generation of ecologists. T'he statement made by Margalef in 1970, that the system approach is rarely accessible to ecologists born during the first twenty-five years of the present century, is neither a chance nor an unfounded statement. A characteristic feature of the Polish ecological school is the inclusion of ecology as a whole in research, embracing both terrestrial ecology and hydrobiology, plant and animal ecology, studies on natural ecosystems and those changed or even created by man, field studies and experimental laboratory studies.