The Importance of Fieldwork in Biology

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FIELDWORK IN BIOLOGY* P. C. C. GARNHAMÎ Scientific observations on plants and animals began centuries ago by people collecting and watching their growth and behaviour in the field; later the objects were uprooted and adapted to life in unnatural surroundings , where eventually research on a molecular level became possible . But the operations of Nature still require study in their pristine conditions. The pioneers of our subject all sought and found inspiration in the field. Linnaeus [1], who gave us our alphabet, discovered its rudiments during his wanderings in the meadows of Smâland and Skâne in southern Sweden and as far north as Lapland. His vision was sharpened in those latitudes by the peculiar effect of the horizontal rays of the midnight sun; they revealed unique features of new plants. Eventually his pupils supplied him with a wealth of material from all regions of the world and thus enabled Linnaeus to complete his system of binomial nomenclature of plants and animals. One of these pupils was Forsk âl, whose name is associated with a snail (Bulinnsforskali) important in the transmission of schistosomiasis [2]; he made collections of material for his master in Arabia but contracted malaria and died in the Yemen. The observations of Linnaeus were made in the middle of the eighteenth century. Later in the century, the German baron von Humboldt [3] was seized with a travel fever which took him to South America, and in that unknown territory comprising the union ofthe Amazon and the Orinoco Rivers he found a wealth of novel botanical features. In further travels he made fundamental discoveries in other branches of science, from the nature of volcanic activity in the Andes to what is now called Humboldt's Current in the Pacific. Then, in the nineteenth century, fieldwork led to the development of theories on evolution. Linnaeus had taught us how to name species; Darwin demonstrated their origin. The voyage of H.M.S. Beagle [4] provided him with the raw material on both the mainland of South America and the Galapagos Islands off the west coast of the continent. Evidence *Presidential Address to Section of Zoology, British Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting, University of Aston, Birmingham, England, 1977. tlmperial College Field Station, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berks SL5 7PY, England.© 1979 by The University of Chicago. 0031-5982/79/2204-0066$01.00 480 I P. C. C. Garnham ¦ Fieldwork in Biology for the theory rapidly accumulated as the result of further expeditions, among them those of Wallace [5] in the eastern hemisphere. Regretfully some ofthis work was accompanied by horrible slaughter ofthe animals, and Wallace accounted for dozens ofthe rare ape, the orang-utan. Tom Harrisson [6] referred to this as the study of natural history by assassination ! These early workers had been impressed by the interrelationships of animals, plants, climate, sea currents, and geology. But it was not until the present century that "synecology" (as these connections are now called) was developed into a doctrine. The Russian workers are principally responsible. Pavlovsky [7] set the modern stage as a result of his innumerable journeys through the steppes and taiga of Russia and Siberia. He showed how the conjunction of plants, animals, soil, and climate constituted natural foci ofdisease. A knowledgeable glance at the landscape would quickly disclose its epidemiology. The various constituents make up the "whole" or the "biocenosis." Natural foci, landscape epidemiology, and biocenosis are essential elements of studies in the field—particularly in medical zoology and zoogeography. What field is left today after the depredations of civilisation, and what remains to be discovered? Unfortunately, much of the field has been fenced off and we can no longer wander at will through many of those fascinating tropical lands. But the game is not entirely up and a large part of tropical America is still open to zoological exploration, while countries in Southeast Asia welcome help from the West. Only in Africa the unsettled conditions create difficulties, and don't go there unless you are bent on studying some condition which is unique to that continent— for instance, tsetse flies, or East Coast Fever of cattle. This paper is addressed to research workers...

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