ABSTRACT
The individual-based approach in ecology can be regarded as an application of reductionist methodology, i.e. deriving the properties of a system from the properties and interrelations among elements of the system. The reductionist method has generally proved to be very successful in science, and there are good reasons to believe that the same is true in ecology. The use of an individual-based approach is also justified in view of the recent progress in evolutionary and behavioral ecology.
Although difficult, the progress achieved by the individual-based approach allows us to see more clearly the mechanism of population stability as determined by scramble and contest competition. What is more important, it allows us to determine how population stability is related to unequal resource partitioning and resource monopolization. There is a chance that several important ecological problems can be solved by the application of an individual-based approach, especially in the area of population ecology.
