Abstract
In domains that develop axiomatically, theoretical syntheses have the role to describe which are these axioms and how scientific practice should be guided by them. However ecology develops pragmatically, that is, scientists propose a new understanding of the world by exploring, modifying and co-opting previously proposed models, seldom referring to axioms. Therefore a synthesis in ecology cannot rely on the enunciation of axioms and need to be based on the actual activity of ecologists. Here we present an approach to make a theoretical synthesis based on how frequently scientists use some models to learn about the world. We argue that a domain of study can be delimited around a scientific community studying a phenomenon and that this community has a frequency of use of some models. We identify these models by assessing how the most referred publications are cited in the studies made by this community. We also present the results of the first implementation of the proposed approach to a case study with the phenomenon of ecological succession. We found that there is no clear division between “classical” and “contemporary” succession and that neutral models are now being used to explain succession. We conclude that the use of the proposed approach can be used to synthesize and understand theories that develop pragmatically and it allows for analyses of how theories change depending on the research context.
Footnotes
This manuscript underwent extensive modification since it was divided into two manuscripts. Now the arguments regarding why ecologist should adopt a pragmatic view are described in another manuscript. The present manuscript is a detailed description of the approach with methodological implications and description of a case study.