The practical considerations of scale in plant pathology

The concept of scale has only recently gained recognition as a central theme in ecology. The rise in significance of scale in ecology can be attributed to the increase in hypothesis-driven experimental ecology over the last quarter century, and the realization that experimental results do not sufficiently explain past, or predict future observations in nature. Plant pathologists, who rely heavily on hypothesis-driven research, have confronted these same issues for nearly a century. In this paper, I will provide a concise presentation and discussion of the important concepts of scale and how they apply to the discipline of plant pathology.