Res Popul Ecol

Emergent and effective properties in ecology and evolution

summary.

Emergent properties are often discussed in arguments concerning relationships among different levels. Howerver, the different definitions of emergent propreties somtimes confuse the argument about marcro-level phenomena, since some authors regard emergent properties not only as observable global patterns but as properties that affect and cause change in ecological and evolutionary processes. THus it is important to distinguish higer-level or large-scale properties that can influence particular ecological and evolutionary processes from those that cannot. I call the former properties effective properties. I gave examples that show why the distinctions between effective and non-effecitve properties are important.

key-words: emergent properties, emergence, global, patterns, macro-level, higher-level.