Considerações sobre os conceitos de nicho ecológico na perspectiva de Bachelard como subsídio ao ensino de ciências/biologia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the construction of the concept of ecological niche from the perspective of Bachelard. The ecological niche concept is fundamental to understanding the ecology of communities, although it is still misunderstood. Joseph Grinnell proposed that the ecological niche idea was related to the type of place where the organism lives. However, Grinnell too simplified for niche idea, and thus, this concept can be considered as a generalization of epistemological obstacle according to Bachelardian epistemology. The second author trying to elucidate the niche concept was Charles Elton, who considered that the ecological niche of an organism represented his way of life. In ecology books it is common to make an analogy between the concept of Elton and human society associating the niche of an organism to jobs or professions of human beings. This analogy brings some epistemological obstacles such as verbal and animist, consisting of barriers to learning niche idea correctly. The ecological niche concept accepted was currently proposed by Evelyn Hutchinson and refers to the limits of tolerance and the set of conditions and resources needed for an individual or a species comply with their way of life. This is the most comprehensive and which provides better explanations. However, for it to be possible to reach this concept, it was necessary for there to overcome the epistemological obstacles and improving the mistakes of previous researchers.