The Words Population and Community Have Outlived their Usefulness in Ecological Publications

The concepts of population and community are so fundamental to the identity of ecological science that their use is almost never questioned, even though many authors have noted that neither has a generally accepted definition. Authors continue to invent new definitions without noting that their definitions will exclude most other ecologists. While there have been many publications questioning the utility of particular lines of ecological enquiry, these have had little effect on ecological practice, and recent ecological papers have few fundamental differences from those published half a century ago, despite the huge advances in analytical techniques. Complaining about others' definitions or suggesting that others should use your definition does not qualify as a method. Here I propose a simple method to increase the utility of ecological publications for conservation that would go far towards solving the problems that have been identified by many authors - stop using the words population and community The words population and community, as used by ecologists and conservationists, are at best redundant, and almost always retard understanding by scientists and decision makers. The simple expedient of reviewers and editors requesting that authors do not use these words would make authors have to make their methods and assumptions explicit, and the conservation science more useful.