Article
XIAO Xianjing, LIN Xianglei
There is little domestic and foreign literature specializing in classification of ecological experiments.The domestic literature classifies the ecological experiments mainly according to subject branches of ecology and the teaching needs,belonging to apparent classification.The foreign literature classifies ecological experiments mainly based on the specific characteristics of the ecology experiments,reflecting corresponding salient features of the ecological experiments.Furthermore,certain lacks of existing literature on the classification of ecological experiments such as standard confusion,insufficient division, excessive sub-item,skip-grade division,conceptual confusion,and so on are found in accordance with general principles of taxonomy and the literature study.On this basis, systematic classifications of ecological experiments are given.First,according to the organizational level of the object studied,the cross of ecology and the other natural sciences and social sciences,and research motivation,the ecological experiments are divided into various ecological sub-discipline experiments:according to the level of organization of the object studied,the ecological experiments can be divided into autecology experiments, population ecology experiments,community ecology experiments,ecosystem ecology experiments,landscape ecology experiments,and global ecology experiments;according to sub-discipline formed by the intersection of ecology and biological sciences,the ecological experiments can be divided into the physiological ecology experiments,genetic ecology experiments,behavioral ecology experiments,animal ecology experiments,plant ecology experiments,microbial ecology experiment,and so on;according to the motives of the ecology experimental research,the ecological experiments can be divided into theoretical ecology experiments and applied ecology experiments.Second,based on the teaching needs, the ecological experiments can be divided into basic experiments,comprehensive experiments and research experiments.Third,the ecological experiments can be divided into a series of experimental categories based on the spatial and temporal characteristics,object characteristics,and role characteristics of the ecological experiments.According to places where the experiments are implemented,the ecological experiments can be divided into field experiments and laboratory experiments;according to whether the experiments are qualitative or quantitative,the ecological experiments can be divided into qualitative experiments and quantitative(mensurative)experiments;according to whether naturally occurring interferences are used as treatments,the ecological experiments can be divided into natural experiments and unnatural experiment;according to whether the experiments directly act on the objective object,the ecological experiments can be divided into direct experiments and indirect experiments;according to the number of ecological factors to be tested,the ecological experiments can be divided into single factor experiments and multi-factor experiments;based on the time scale of the experiments,the ecological experiments can be divided into short-term experiments and long-term experiments;based on the spatial scale of the experiments themselves,the ecological experiments can be divided into microcosm, mesocosm,and macrocosm;based on whether models are used,the ecological experiments can be divided into model experiments and non-model experiments.The above classifications are first level classifications.Second and third level classifications can be performed to some of them,for example,the field experiments can be divided into marine field ecology experiments,and terrestrial field ecology experiments,etc.;the terrestrial field ecology experiments can be divided into farmland field ecology experiments,and grassland field ecology experiments,etc.It is significant for deepening our understanding of the related ecological experiments connotations,clarifying the category of ecology experiments,and better engaging in teaching and research to point out the lack of the existing ecological experiments and give systematic classification of the ecological experiments.
