A LOOK AT EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY

This article discusses the scientific prerequisites, principal problem s, current status, and prospects for future development of evolutionar y ecology, a special scientific direction founded by Academician S. S. Shvarts in the early 1970s. The significance of the ecological guidep ost present in the name ''evolutionary ecology'' is becoming clear pre cisely now, when the deep need for enrichment of evolutionary theory w ith ecological views and methodology has become obvious. It is suggest ed that, on the strength of the expected acceleration of microevolutio nary transformations of animal, plant, and microorganism populations i n conditions of intensifying anthropogenic pressure, evolutionary theo ry may unexpectedly become an applied field.