Tansley’s 1917 paper is about the competition of different soil types between Galium Saxatile L. (G. Hercynicum Weig.) and Galium Sylvestre Poll. (G.Asperum Schreb.). To be more specific, Tansley investigates the plant population distributions between two closely related species to answer the ecological problem of competition between plant species. To find the answer to this question, an experimental procedure of observing the growth of the two plant species in different soil types must be done. The soil types used in the study were sandy loam, calcareous, acid peat and non-calcareous.
Tansley did not conduct the experiment himself and instead used the data collected from the original experiment that was done by E. M. Hume. The results concluded that no growth was shown by both species in sandy loam soil, Galium sylvestre grew normally but Galium saxatile grew slowly and a bit before it was suppressed by chlorosis in calcareous soil, growth of both species were slow in acid peat before Galium saxatile begins to surpass Galium sylvestre. Calcareous and non-calcareous soils were more favorable to Galium sylvestre and less favourable to Galium saxatile in later experiments and the reason for this difference is unexplained.
After reading his paper, a distinct comparable difference between his scientific paper and the present modern ones can be seen. One key difference is the lack of statistical analysis and this may be due to the fact that while statistical analysis was first created in the early 19th century it hasn’t been used as a tool in scientific literature. The reason is because it was first developed as the study of populations, economies and moral actions before it was later used as a mathematical tool for analyzing numbers. Therefore, using statistical analysis as a tool to analyze numbers may not have been developed until many years after the year Tansley’s paper came out.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 