Quite so!
Careful integration of suitable plants into ecosystems rather than replacing
them with "human-assembled" pseudo-systems that require "management" is one
way of retaining ecosystem integrity and increasing the usefulness of PART
of the ecosystem for one species, the most invasive of all--US!
Then, there is hunting and gathering, rotational slash-and-burn, and many
other techniques more amenable to our relationship to the earth and its life
than continuing to shoot ourselves in the foot.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas J. Givnish" <givn...@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 5:28 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Human-assembled ecosystem
Even highly diverse, apparently sustainable agricultural systems – like the
forest gardens of lowland Samoa – wind up displacing/destroying much
biodiversity when human population densities are even moderately dense.
Harking to an earlier thread: while invasive species can, in the short term,
increase local species richness, in the long term the broad spread of a few
weedy or commensal species can erode global biodiversity substantially, by
driving many local species to extinction or nearly so. That's already
happened on many tropical islands, and is in the process of happening many
other places.
Don Strong's pithy questions are the best response to the shallow account re
Ascension Island that triggered this string. His questions are posted (ca.
Aug 26) with the article.
Thomas J. Givnish
Henry Allan Gleason Professor of Botany
University of Wisconsin
givn...@wisc.edu
http://botany.wisc.edu/givnish/Givnish/Welcome.html
On 09/01/13, "frah...@yahoo.com" wrote:
Dear Wayne,
Indeed, but there is a huge difference between a corn field and that
forest in Ascension Island, or a corn field and what the forest gardening
movement is trying to achieve. The further we move away from the high
energy input, low biodiversity, soil fertility destroying, water
demanding, toxic waste producing side to sustain us the better off we and
the planet will be.
And until we are not ready to go back to hunter and gatherer life style
and low population densities we are forced to occupy some land aimed to
the production of food and other commodities. In this context edible
forests assembled by humans seem something worth a trial as a step towards
something more sustainable.
It doesn't matter if someone wants to call the high energy input, low
biodiversity, soil fertility destroying, water demanding, toxic waste
producing assemblage "an ecosystem". Call it what you wish but do
something to move away from it cause it won't sustain you for too long.
There is really no time to argue on definitions.
Francesca
________________________________
From: Wayne Tyson <landr...@cox.net>
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Sent: Sunday, September 1, 2013 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Human-assembled ecosystem
Cultivation of plants and animals, by definition, replaces complex,
self-sustaining ecosystems with monocultures or "polycultures."
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "frah...@yahoo.com" <frah...@yahoo.com>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 3:11 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Human-assembled ecosystem
Very interesting article and subject considering we are in a terrible
urgency to restore so much degraded land and to start producing food in a
more sustainable way.
It is not about advocating for replacing a native forest with a
human-assembled ecosystem of course, but starting replacing monoculture
agricultural fields, pastures, degraded abandoned lands with a forested
ecosystem assembled by humans with the purpose to provide food is probably
the future of our species and a step towards real sustainability.
Yes, unfortunately "applied projects" hardly are ever published but in the
world of permaculture, edible forest gardening and the alike people are
trying to create diverse self-maintaining forested ecosystems that provide
for human needs (food, fuel, fodder, fiber, timber) in a sustainable
manner.
This approach might allow humans to contribute positively to life on this
planet rather than negatively as we have been historically accustomed to
do.
Here a list of institutes I am aware of that research on and promote this
type of approach to agriculture and human sustenance:
Temperate:
http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/about_gardening
http://www.apiosinstitute.org/
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/forgndg.html
Subtropical:
http://www.permaculturenews.org/about-permaculture-and-the-pri/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca3SRjHfMX8
I hope to see the scientific community putting more effort in this type of
urgently needed research and projects.
Francesca
________________________________
From: Richard Boyce <boy...@nku.edu>
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 5:01 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Human-assembled ecosystem
Here's a *very* interesting story on the human-assembled ecosystems of
Ascension Island in the tropical South Atlantic:
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/on_a_remote_island_lessons__in_how_ecosystems_function/2683/
I suspect that further research here may challenge our ideas regarding
community assembly.
================================
Richard L. Boyce, Ph.D.
Director, Environmental Science Program
Professor
Department of Biological Sciences, SC 150
Northern Kentucky University
Nunn Drive
Highland Heights, KY 41099 USA
859-572-1407 (tel.)
859-572-5639 (fax)
boy...@nku.edu<mailto:boy...@nku.edu(javascript:main.compose()>
http://www.nku.edu/~boycer/
=================================
"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly
making
exciting discoveries." - A.A. Milne
--
