ABSTRACT
One of the defining social themes of the decade has been ecological awareness. Consequently, ecology now stands at the interface between science and public policy. Pressure groups, citizens, and policy-makers can draw on ecological research to form opinions on the ‘big questions’ facing the planet: what to do about climate change, biodiversity, population control, and other pressing matters. So the issue of how ecologists gather information, and how that information can be applied, becomes tremendously important.
