Ecolog:
I still want to know what "ecosystem function" is. Just a simple definition,
no more, no less.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matt Chew" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2012 11:54 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity
This has been an interesting conversation. Ecological functions entail
putative benefits to some population or individual. It doesn't have to be
a human population, so it doesn't have to be anthropocentric, but that is
the second most common centrism. Biocentrism and ecocentrism are generally
proxies for the most common one: idiocentrism. Biocentrism and ecocentrism
involve benefits to things that benefit the author of the argument. If
this seems dubious, how many times have you seen discussions of "functions"
without benefits, such as "the function of mass extinction" or "the
function of acid precipitation"? That suggests ecosystem function and
ecosystem service are fundamentally identical concepts. Processes are more
benefits-equivocal than functions. A designed system (e.g., a farm)
includes processes more and less beneficial from various points of
reference, but has a designed function benefiting the farmer. An
accumulated system (e.g., an ecosystem) likewise includes processes but
lacks a designer or a function—if your metaphysics will allow.
Matthew K Chew
Assistant Research Professor
Arizona State University School of Life Sciences
ASU Center for Biology & Society
PO Box 873301
Tempe, AZ 85287-3301 USA
Tel 480.965.8422
Fax 480.965.8330
[email protected] or [email protected]
https://cbs.asu.edu/people/chew-0<http://cbs.asu.edu/people/profiles/chew.php>
http://asu.academia.edu/MattChew
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