04 Theory of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences

wildlife and fisheries science

• designing and conducting field studies to draw conclusions about WL/Fish populations to improve management outcomes or minimizing resources to reach desirable states

• meaningful questions, usually mgt-focused

• process fundamentally based in ecological knowledge

science

_______ is the proper tool for the discharge of wildlife policy

management oriented research

• research guided by clear objectives

• output aimed at developing actionable items

• commonly called applied research

basic research

improves our understanding of ecological principles, but may have little direct management relevance

scientific method

• systematic method to gain knowledge about nature

• seeks to answer questions by testing 1 or more hypotheses

• answer questions based on data obtained from systematic observation and/or experimentation

deductive reasoning

• top down logic

• general law → specific consequence

• if premises true, conclusion must be true

• apply principles to rule out or constrain possibilities

inductive reasoning

• bottom up logic

• observations → general conclusion

• never guarantees the truth

retroductive/abductive reasoning

• inference to best explanation; examine multiple facts or observations and propose a hypothesis that, if true, would explain them

• developing an explanation for an event that has already happened

hypothetico-deductive reasoning

• hypothesize → deduce predictions → test

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