Warder Clyde Allee

Allee effect

Allee dedicated his life to researching the benefits of organisms acting in a group rather than as individuals. Through observing groups of organisms, Allee discovered that cooperation is both beneficial and essential in nature. The Allee effect describes the positive correlation between population density and individual fitness of a population or species.

Social Implications Allee's research on social aggregations and the evolution of cooperation coincided with his social activism, religious beliefs, and opposition to war. Raised as a Quaker, Allee publicly renounced war, which made him a target of harsh criticism and persecution.

In the 1940s, Allee argued that his research on the social behaviors of animals provided clear evidence against a biological basis for war. Specifically, he believed that his theory on the sociality of organisms based on cooperation among individuals proved that war was not a natural occurrence. According to Gregg Mitman, Allee saw ecologists as "social healers" who were able to provide a naturalistic foundation for ethics through their research.

Publications Allee's dedication to research resulted in more than 200 papers and over a dozen books, including Animal Aggregations: A Study in General Sociology (1931), Animal Life and Social Growth (1932), The Social Life of Animals (1938), Principles of Animal Ecology, co-authored by Alfred E. Emerson, Orlando Park, Thomas Park, and Karl P. Schmidt (1949), and Cooperation among Animals, with Human Implications (1951).

Commemoration, death, and legacy Many biologists and historians believe that Allee's reputation was diminished by the work of another ecologist, George C. Williams. Williams's work, Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966), refutes Allee's research on group cooperation by stressing the importance of individual selection and providing samples that invalidated the idea of group selection.

However, the research and legacy of Allee is still recognized and discussed today as many scientists remain interested in the principles behind the Allee effect. In 1973, the Animal Behavior Society began to offer the W.C. Allee Award for the best presentation of an ethological work of research by a student in a juried competition held at their annual meeting.

Allee died in Gainesville, Florida in 1955, aged 69. He was survived by his two daughters.