Gary, I wonder if when looking at these systems if there should not be a distinction made between your autopoietic(natural) systems and artificial (managed) and systems that have been impacted or disturbed indirectly by outside human activities, but are not actually being managed by humans. For example consider some of the islands in the Allegheny River Islands Wilderness. Most are nearly pristine in terms of development and timbering, but they are otherwise severely disturbed in terms of the ecosystem. Instead of the normal trajectory you are envisioning, this path has been replaced by massive growths of invasive species. On Thompson Island the southern end of the island in the ate summer of fall is a impassable mass of Japanese knotweed, large areas are covered by multiflora roses, former native grasslands have been replaced by reed canary grass. I think these types of impacts are different in character fro those found in actively managed lands and different from natural systems that have not been so severely impacted and are exhibiting an ecosystem dominated by native plants and animals. Other examples of non-managed impacts can be cited.
Edward Frank "Oh, I call myself a scientist. I wear a white coat and probe a monkey every now and then, but if I put monetary gain ahead of preserving nature...I couldn't live with myself." - Professor Hubert Farnsworth By the way, I consider NATURE to be the collective genome of all living systems and their environment. NATURE is self-creating and self-regulating. We distinguish humans from nature because NATURE is a complex, dynamic system controlled by unconscious processes, by natural selection. We appreciate NATURE because it is NOT controlled by us...it is "WILD". I wouldn't consider a ZOO to be an expression of nature or a natural place since humans decide which animal reproduces with which other and humans are controlling the environment of these animals. All of us on this list intuitively know the difference between a zoo and nature, a natural forest and a managed plantation. The difficulty comes in placing each forest on the NATURAL.............................ARTIFICIAL continuum. Gary A. Beluzo Professor of Environmental Science Division of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Holyoke Community College 303 Homestead Avenue Holyoke, MA 01040 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
