From Survey to Ecology: The Role of the British Vegetation Committee, 1904–1913

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This article focuses on early British vegetation science, in particular on the British Vegetation Committee. In earlier histories of (plant) ecology, the period of the Committee's life, 1904–1913, renowned for its surveys and its maps, was depicted as a brief prelude to British plant ecology. This article traces the course of ``survey'' and ``ecology'' within the Committee, demonstrating that survey and ecology were both distinct and intertwined within the Committee.The Committee adhered to two lines of research, one analyzing relatively large areas of vegetation on a small scale (few details), and the other, relatively small areas on a large scale (great detail). When the Committee was founded, vegetation research of relatively large areas dominated, but the balance gradually swung towards research on small areas. Two prominent Committee members, Smith and Tansley, furthermore advocated two research plans, a national survey plan and an ecological research plan. These diverging ideals however co‐existed peacefully and uncontroversially, in contrast to a survey and ecology dichotomy suggested in earlier accounts.An analysis demonstrates the intertwinement of survey and ecology in the period of the Committee's existence. The ``ecological expeditions'' also mapped vegetation, and the scale of the ``survey work'' moreover increased in the Committee's early years. Only by acknowledging their intertwinement can the fate of a particular kind of ``survey-research'' be understood. My analysis shows that this kind of vegetation research did not survive the Committee because of its ecological orientation. This conclusion contradicts the impression prevailing from earlier historical accounts, viz. that British survey work failed because it was insufficiently ecological.