Protected Land by Douglas J. Spieles

Author:Douglas J. Spieles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

And how might we view invasive species in a more individualistic, non-equilibrium, stochastic, radically contingent form of ecosystem protection? There might be less emphasis on the control or eradication of undesirable species, for these might be considered wasted efforts if new introductions continually occur and if the stress regime we place on our ecosystems is not reduced. Rather than the preservation of particular desirable species in a characteristic arrangement, the emphasis might favor the reestablishment of a disturbance regime and the treatment of that regime as a force of open selection, not as a hindrance to “normal” succession. A goal of ecosystem protection in this view might feature the reduction of anthropogenic stress and the maintenance of opportunities for species distribution, migration, and competition.

This is the dilemma of ecosystem conservation. We humans have real and perceived needs to define and maintain stable ecosystems, but the species that populate ecosystems are driven by contingent response to environmental fluctuation. If the boundaries that we assign to our ecosystems are imaginary, the lists of suitable species transient, and the concept of appropriate function contrived, how are we to proceed? What exactly should occur on this land that we protect?

To this point, I have considered the origin, development, and structure of the holistic and individualistic concepts of the ecosystem. I have shown that the definitions of ecosystem attributes are not at all clearly delineated into two paradigms; the reality is that current ecological opinion falls along a range between the extremes. But it is also evident that American ecosystem management policy is predicated on the principles of holism, even though the tenets of holism – stability, health, integrity and resilience – do not stand up well to nonequilibrium science. To evaluate the ramifications of this conceptual dilemma, we now turn to an analysis of ecosystem management in practice.

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