The chapter on hypothesis testing by C. Krebs presents seven recommendations for ecologists in carrying out their research. He supports the falsification of hypotheses approach which was espoused by Karl Popper. He also recommends the practice of using multiple working hypotheses since many hypotheses will be shown to be wrong. This chapter provides an excellent background in scientific methodology for beginning graduate students. Even though vertebrates are routinely marked by mutilations, tags, bands, and radiotransmitters, the effects of these markers have not been rigorously evaluated.
Researchers tend to overlook or ignore the effects of marking in their field studies.
The authors provide recommendations for future use of markers and call for more research on their effects. Boyce points out that wildlife biologists suffer from the techniques syndrome in which researchers are more concerned about how to gather reliable data than what to do with those same data. Ecological research has had a long division between the modelers and the empiricists. He advocates a more mathematical approach to predator-prey dynamics and recommends that wildlife ecologists put more emphasis on testing ecological principles. This work is well organized, critical of current research techniques, and should be very useful for researchers in all stages of their career.