XIAO Xianjing
With the existence of the time and the space and the existence of the scale, we may infer the existence of the temporal and spatial scales of the ecological experimental objects (in the ontological sense, also called the "eigen scales"). The basic principle of understanding the spatio-temporal scale of the ecological experimental objects is to make the "spatio-temporal operational scale of the ecological experimental objects" (in the methodological sense, also called the "representational scale") correspond to the spatio-temporal scale of the ecological experimental objects (in the epistemological sense).This is the realism of the time-space scale relevance of the ecological experiments. In the process of specific ecological experiments, some ecologists either insist that the spatio-temporal scale of the ecological experimental objects does not exist, or insist that although they exist, they cannot be recognized, thus they are in the position of the instrumentalism and the empirical constructivism (as opposed to the realism). This position is at odds with the fundamental tenet of the ecological understanding-the understanding of the relationship between the living things and the environment in nature, and should be abandoned. Moreover, some ecologists have difficulties in understanding the spatiotemporal scale of the ecological experimental objects, or have the feeling of out of the picture without publishing, or for other reasons, they go to simplify the space-time scale of the ecological experiment object into the Newton's absolute space-time view, instead of the Einstein's relativistic space-time view, Prigogine's "inner-time" and even the extended "inner-space" space-time view, and the Leibniz's "space view" and even the extended "time view" of the relationship. The right "granularity" and "amplitude" are not properly considered to carry out the experiment, with the error of "improper use". Insufficient multi-scale analysis often results in "aggregation bias". Without an appropriate model, we come to the position of the "mousetrap for the elephant". The "characteristic scale" is not correctly identified, resulting in the "ecological fallacy". In view of the above shortcomings, the ecological experimenters should adhere to the correct view of the time and the space and take various measures for a correct understanding of the scale of the objects of the ecological experiments.
