Darwin said (said shortly) that ecology was the force driving evolution via differential mortaality. Ecologists, in particular in the anglo-saxon world are instead taught that evolution is the driver of ecology via reproductive fitness. And don't even dare to say that ecology is not evolutionary biology! Your research would be pointed to as poorly designed and unsupported.
The moral of Hubbel's model is that you can do very good prediction about many aspects of communities by avoiding to make any reference to evolutionary properties (competition, fintess etc.) and simply focussing on the abstract properties of the community per se- Of course his ideas (ehcih need obviously much more work) were received with incredulity if not outrage. Wegener received the same reception, even if he had plenty of support for his theory and even id his theory was badly incomplete (which means that you must work on it, not reject it). It must be said that ecologists are gradually beginning to accept that maybe some neutral process occurs in the communities. But without a change of perspective Hubbel provocation will not be fruitful.
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