Abstract
This chapter is about how our sensory abilities to perceive nature are essential to an observational approach to ecology. These sensory abilities are both universal to humankind and at the same time unique to different individual humans, based on their personal history, abilities, and motivations. Our senses are our most elemental tools in building an observational understanding of ecological relationships, but they are often underutilized and sometimes viewed with skepticism in a scientific context. In this chapter we show how each of the senses can contribute to scientific ecology. We use the experiences of past and present ecologists to argue that the personal nature of how we utilize our senses can be an asset that motivates us to explore the natural world and opens us to new ecological discoveries.
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Notes
- 1.
*“Here Comes the Sound,” interview on Living on Earth radio program, aired 10 February 2010 (loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=10-P13-00009&segment ID=6, accessed 14 October 2010). This interview with David Dunn and researchers Richard Hofstetter and Reagan McGuire reveals both the power of interdisciplinary collaborations and the enormous gaps in our understanding of sensory ecology.
- 2.
*The examples of distinctive smells and tastes of intertidal organisms, as well as the story of “Izzie” Abbott’s naming of the algae, come from two great West Coast naturalists, John and Vicki Pearse.
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© 2012 Rafe Sagarin and Aníbal Pauchard
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Sagarin, R., Pauchard, A. (2012). Using All the Senses in Ecology. In: Observation and Ecology. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-230-3_4
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