Alfred C. Redfield's Remarkable Ratios

摘要

Ecologists have individualistic perspectives on how nature works because our personal interests innature (plants, birds, soils) subsequently become modified by our encounters with teachers, historicalevents, individuals, and ideas. I suspect that, upon reflection, most of us could name a dozen or sopersons, courses, papers or books that have had a special influence on our career trajectories. TheESA Bulletin’s editor, through this Paper Trail series, has given us the opportunity to reflect uponparticularly influential papers as a way for us to understand the intellectual fabric of our discipline.This is especially germane on the eve of ESA’s Centennial. I describe here a seminal paper that shapedmy thinking which has led, in turn, to other developments in ecology.