I attended the inaugural meeting of ESA

Jiro Kikkawa

Professor Emeritus, School of Biological Sciences

The University of Queensland.

Professor Jiro Kikkawa was President of ESA 1974-1976 and Gold Medalist in 1986

Towards the end of May 1961, soon after I arrived in Australia, I had the good fortune to attend a meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) in Brisbane, where scientists from all major centres of Australia and New Zealand attended to report on their work and exchange their ideas. I had studied ecology in Japan and England, and had just completed a three-year fellowship in New Zealand. Within the ANZAAS meeting the Canberra group of ecologists hosted a symposium “Ecology in Australia” chaired by Ken Key (CSIRO Division of Entomology).

At that time active ecologists in Australia were engaged in the study of plants and animals and soils affecting primary industries over a wide range of geographical and climatic regions. Ecologists mostly worked in CSIRO or other governmental institutions as the universities had little research function. What surprised me very much then was the fact that this was the first national meeting of ecologists in Australia. This was surprising because Australian ecology had been leading the central debate of population dynamics in British and American journals since the 1930s.

The density dependence model of Nicholson and Bailey (1935) was supported by many blowfly experiments (Nicholson 1954) but rejected as an untenable dogma by Andrewartha and Birch (1954). The debate was widespread internationally (e.g. Elton 1955) and was carried on for many years (Kikkawa 1977). So I could not believe that there had been no national organisation of ecologists in Australia until then. Half a century has now passed.

Since the 1960s, the functions of ANZAAS have dissipated into many professional societies, and ESA played a significant role as ecologists advanced theories and developed land-use practices for the management of biological resources while preserving the natural heritage of unique environments in Australia. More innovative approaches are required of ecologists today in response to climate change and for biodiversity conservation.

Congratulations to ESA on its 50th Anniversary, and my best wishes for the next 50 years!

References:

Andrewartha, H.G. & Birch L.C. (1954) The Distribution and Abundance of Animals.

University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Elton, C.S. (1955) Natural control of animal populations, being a review of ‘The

Distribution and Abundance of Animals’ by H.G. Andrewartha and L.C. Birch.   

Nature, Lond., 176, 419.

Kikkawa, J. (1977) Ecological paradoxes. Aust. J. Ecol. 2, 121-136.

Nicholson, A.J. (1954) An outline of the dynamics of animal populations. Aust. J. Zool.