Natural History

Natural History

Bruce G. Stewart

General Objectives and Study Guide

Your objectives for these Notes on the Web and associated readings and exercises are:

To define natural history;
To list and explain the major objective, challenges, and questions of natural history;
To explain the importance of natural history and its relationship to the study of certain biological levels of organization;
To ask the question as to why it is called natural history; to state and understand the answer.

What is Natural History?

Unit Two of your Internet "Notes on the Web" explores biodiversity, classification, species concepts, ecology, and some behavior. Natural history is a blending of all of these areas plus many more. The great 20th century biologist and popularizer of natural history, Marston Bates (1990) wrote that natural history includes

“the study of life at the level of the individual…”
“how they react to each other and their environment
“how they organize into larger groupings like populations and communities.”

Bates (1990) stated that the major objective of natural history was , “the explanation of the diversity of living things.” What an ambitious objective! It draws on many areas of study to accomplish this objective. A scientist who is a natural historian must be broadly trained indeed! Consider the magnitude of the project. There are already about 1.6 million species named and described by biologists. By various methods, it is possible to estimate a likely range within which the actual number of species occurs. These estimates ranges between five and 30 million (or even more)! A conservative estimate is around 12 million (Cox 1997). The diversity of species is truly amazing. Natural history, according to Bates (1990), is charged with answering some important questions to explain this diversity such as:

How did these things come about?
What forces govern their evolution?
What forces maintain their numbers?
What forces determine their survival or extinction?

Why is Natural History Important?

Bates (1990) also recognized and revealed how important knowledge of natural history is to us as a human species:

These are the problems of natural history, problems that concern us ourselves as animals and that concern us even more as originators of this thing we call civilization--which is, after all, merely a rather special sort of an animal community.

Bates understood, as we must understand, that we are a part of a much larger living system. Our own well-being depends on us learning to maintain the structure and function of the ecosystems and communities in which we live.

This wisdom is not new! We humans just tend to have short collective memories, and we must be reminded time and again of nature's realities that we cannot escape. Consider the lessons of the dust bowl during the 1930's, the pesticide disasters that became evident in the 1960's, the biodiversity crisis of the late 20th century and ongoing today, the global warming crisis today, and many other hard realities of the past and present. One of the most moving passages about our human connection with nature was written in the winter of 1971/1972 by Ted Perry as a poetic film screen expression inspired by a speech made by Chief Seattle in 1854 (Museum of History and Industry 1990 as quoted in The eJournal website 2007a). (See also Zussy 1990 as quoted in The e-Journal website 2007b for clarification on this quote commonly attributed to Chief Seattle himself.) Here is a portion of the text now attributed to Perry.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth
We did not weave the web of life,
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web,
we do to ourselves...

How about an even more ancient bit of wisdom from the KJV of the bible?

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

Reasons for conducting, respecting and using natural history research come from a plethora of sources. In addition to the points made so far, remember your notes on levels of organization in biology. Recall the organizational levels (e.g. populations) and areas of study (e.g. ichythology) that are based in natural history.

If what we have discussed so far does not have you fully convinced of the importance of natural history to you, please consider how important it is for us to know the natural history of disease-causing organisms and parasites. This alone would justify (in a self preservation sense) the study of natural history. For example, many parents and children are certainly glad that we know the natural history and treatment for Pediculus capitis? To find out what this is, visit the following link:

Natural History and Other Medical Aspects of Pediculus capitis

And many adults are grateful that we know the natural history and treatment of another species of critter known as Pthirus pubis. To find out what this irritating organism is, visit the following link:

Natural History and Other Medical Aspects of Pthirus pubis

While the above mentioned organisms create primarily irritating conditions, you certainly know that countless organisms cause debilitating or life-threatening conditions. It is absolutely critical that we know the natural histories of these species for our own survival. It is also important to our survival to understand the natural histories of organisms in general. As noted previously humans are an integral part of ecosystems and communities. We must know how the living components of ecosystems and communities function in order to understand the function of the whole. Natural history is therefore essential to the maintenance of sustainable and healthy environments in which we humans live.

You will have a opportunity to hear lecture discussion and/or to participate in threaded discussion on the Internet to enrich your understanding of natural history.

Cited or Related Literature

Bates, Marston. 1990. The Nature of Natural History (originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1950) With a new Preface by Henry S. Horn. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey. 321pp. ISBN 0-691-02446-4.

Museum of History and Industry. 1990. Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens & Chief Seattle. Museum Display.

The eJournal website. 2007a. Territorial Governer Isaac Stevens & Chief Seattle. http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/muhisind.htm (24 October 2007).

The eJournal website. 2007b. Chief Seattle Speech: Washington State Library. Letterhead from Nancy Zussy, State Librarian. http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/wslibrry.htm (24 October 2007).

Zussy, Nancy. 1993. Letter on Chief Seattle Speech. State Librarian, Washington State Library.

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