title: Fundamental ecology is fundamental.
abstract: The primary reasons for conducting fundamental research are satisfying curiosity, acquiring knowledge, and achieving understanding. Here we develop why we believe it is essential to promote basic ecological research, despite increased impetus for ecologists to conduct and present their research in the light of potential applications. This includes the understanding of our environment, for intellectual, economical, social, and political reasons, and as a major source of innovation. We contend that we should focus less on short-term, objective-driven research and more on creativity and exploratory analyses, quantitatively estimate the benefits of fundamental research for society, and better explain the nature and importance of fundamental ecology to students, politicians, decision makers, and the general public. Our perspective and underlying arguments should also apply to evolutionary biology and to many of the other biological and physical sciences.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ecologie,Systématique, et Evolution, UMR CNRS 8079, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Tropical Research, and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Electronic address: franck.courchamp@u-psud.fr.
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Courchamp
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dunne
authors.affiliation: Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, UMR CNRS 7178, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Yvon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Maho
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Ecologie et Diversité Biologique, UMR CNRS 5174, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thébaud
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA; Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, UMR 5554, Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France; Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4030, USA; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 14193 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: mhochber@univ-montp2.fr.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Hochberg
mesh_terms: D004463:Ecology / Q000191:economics*; D012106:Research / Q000191:economics*; D012107:Research Design
keywords: applied ecology; basic ecology; blue-skies research; fundamental research; research priorities