Ecolog:
I share Simberloff's and Strong's feelings of depression and their
skepticism about "novel" "ecosystems." Most of their criticisms seem
well-founded. However, I do believe that there are "things" that can be
learned from studying such phenomena.
First, that organisms are "opportunists." Organisms do what they can, where
they can, when they can. Humans, for better or for worse, are dispersal
agents. Colonization occurs by both "indigenous" and "alien" species. The
world ecosystem and its subsets are so dynamic, vast, and complex as to defy
neat categorization. Very sloppy, very squishy.
But such challenges and counter-challenges are healthy, in that their
resolution has the potential to illuminate some crucial distinctions that
can bring our understanding of ecosystem "function" into clearer focus, even
as they muddy the waters and upset the natural order (whatever that is).
The devil is in the details.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Boyce" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 8:00 AM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Ascension Island: rebuttal of Yale360 article by
Simberloff and Strong
I earlier posted an article about the building of a novel ecosystem on
Ascension Island, and isolated island in the South Atlantic that had few
native species before the British colonized it. Dan Simberloff and Don
Strong have some strong criticisms; you can read them here:
http://e360.yale.edu/Counterpoint_Scientists_Offer_Dissenting_View_on_Ascension_Island.msp
================================
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)
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
http://www.nku.edu/~boycer/
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"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making
exciting discoveries." - A.A. Milne
