Ed Ricketts’ system foreshadowed modern ecological research.
Below is a diagram that we pieced together for the first time from a variety of Ed Ricketts’ own notes on the groundbreaking methods he used (and hoped to use) to systematically describe the intertidal zone and to complete and revise his famous guidebook, Between Pacific Tides. The various processes are outlined and color-coded on the first diagram, and detailed explanation of each process follows.
The diagrams and explanations of Ricketts’ system shown here were derived by the filmmakers from a number of sources, including (1) Ricketts’ Permanent (expedition) notebook, which outlines the rules by which his scientific system was to be conducted, (2) the instructions for filling out his species and survey cards, as detailed by him on 4×6 cards at the front of his index card files in the Hopkins Marine Station Library, and (3) documents in the Edward Flanders Rickets Papers, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Library. A complete bibliography of our research can be found at the end of the diagram.
Although the depiction is ours, Ed Ricketts was singularly focused on process and documenting process. He constantly updated collecting procedures, indexing systems, cross-referencing systems, 3×5 card designs, rubber stamp designs, lab designs and instructions for typists and assistants. As far as we can tell, his mind was itself especially tuned for organization and interconnection. To us, it is not too far a step from the way his mind worked to the theories he both found attractive and theories that he put forward. Namely, that everything is connected to everything.
