Population Ecology as the journal with various aspects of ‘population ecology’

Abstract

Researches on Population Ecology is the former name of Population Ecology and the first volume was published in December 1952. All the papers in the first three volumes were written in Japanese with English summary; then the journal made a fresh start from Volume 4 in 1962 with all the papers written in English. Therefore Population Ecology has a long history as an international journal of ecology and we can read the whole contents on the web site of Springer. Our journal changed its name from Researches on Population Ecology to Population Ecology in 2000. I heard that the first motivation for it was the unnatural usage of English word, but there were many complications to obtain the approval for it from within the society because the renaming the journal was an influential affair on the journal itself. At that time both the merits and the demerits were also discussed. Although the simple name Population Ecology can strongly appeal to the readership, ‘population ecology’ is also the name of an established area in ecology and then it may lead to a misunderstanding that the journal only covers the studies on population dynamics for abundance or distribution. As Shimada (2000) wrote in his editorial, Population Ecology experienced the renaissance at that time and then the aims and scope of the journal were also revised and clarified as ‘‘Population Ecology publishes original research articles and reviews (including invited reviews) on various aspects of ‘population ecology’, from the individual to the community level, without page limit. Among the specific fields included are population dynamics and distribution, evolutionary ecology, ecological genetics, theoretical models, conservation biology, agroecosystem studies, and bioresource management’’ (cited from the web site of Population Ecology). Comparing it to the published articles in the present Population Ecology, a broader range of the fields are definitely covered but several areas mentioned in the aims and scope are still less represented. I believe that ‘population ecology’ has been one of the most attractive study areas in ecology, which can be proved by looking at the contents in Population Ecology. Namely ‘population ecology’ in a broad spectrum of the research fields is still a developing study area, which is affected by and also affects on other areas of ecological studies. Then we are waiting for your submission fitted to the aims and scope of Population Ecology, in which a broad sense of ‘population ecology’ is included. Your submission may contribute to lead us to a new direction of ‘population ecology’.