Ecosystem theory and conservation

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Moulton
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Theory

scholarly journals Long-term changes in the plant ecology of an African savanna landscape and the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation management

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Western ◽  
Victor N. Mose ◽  
David Maitumo ◽  
Caroline Mburu
Keyword(s):  
Human Impact ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Conservation Management ◽  
Plant Ecology ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Pasture Production ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Studies of the African savannas have used national parks to test ecological theories of natural ecosystems, including equilibrium, non-equilibrium, complex adaptive systems, and the role of top-down and bottom-up physical and biotic forces. Most such studies have excluded the impact of pastoralists in shaping grassland ecosystems and, over the last half century, the growing human impact on the world’s rangelands. The mounting human impact calls for selecting indicators and integrated monitoring methods able to track ecosystem changes and the role of natural and human agencies. Our study draws on five decades of monitoring the Amboseli landscape in southern Kenya to document the declining role of natural agencies in shaping plant ecology with rising human impact. Results We show that plant diversity and productivity have declined, biomass turnover has increased in response to a downsizing of mean plant size, and that ecological resilience has declined with the rising probability of extreme shortfalls in pasture production. The signature of rainfall and physical agencies in driving ecosystem properties has decreased sharply with growing human impact. We compare the Amboseli findings to the long-term studies of Kruger and Serengeti national parks to show that the human influence, whether by design or default, is increasingly shaping the ecology of savanna ecosystems. We look at the findings in the larger perspective of human impact on African grasslands and the world rangelands, in general, and discuss the implications for ecosystem theory and conservation policy and management. Conclusions The Amboseli study shows the value of using long-term integrated ecological monitoring to track the spatial and temporal changes in the species composition, structure, and function of rangeland ecosystems and the role of natural and human agencies in the process of change. The study echoes the widespread changes underway across African savannas and world’s rangelands, concluding that some level of ecosystem management is needed to prevent land degradation and the erosion of ecological function, services, and resilience. Despite the weak application of ecological theory to conservation management, a plant trait-based approach is shown to be useful in explaining the macroecological changes underway.

scholarly journals A methodological roadmap to quantify animal-vectored spatial ecosystem subsidies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Ellis-Soto ◽  
Kristy M. Ferraro ◽  
Matteo Rizzuto ◽  
Emily Briggs ◽  
Julia D. Monk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Movement ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Nutrient Transport ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Ecosystem Impacts ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
High Level ◽  
Tracking Devices

Ecosystems are open systems connected through spatial flows of energy, matter, and nutrients. Predicting and managing ecosystem interdependence requires a rigorous quantitative understanding of the drivers and vectors that connect ecosystems across spatio-temporal scales. Animals act as such vectors when they transport nutrients across landscapes in the form of excreta, egesta, and their own bodies. Here, we introduce a methodological roadmap that combines movement, foraging, and ecosystem ecology to study the effects of animal-vectored nutrient transport on meta-ecosystems. The meta-ecosystem concept — the notion that ecosystems are connected in space and time by flows of energy, matter, and organisms across boundaries — provides a theoretical framework on which to base our understanding of animal-vectored nutrient transport. However, partly due to its high level of abstraction, there are few empirical tests of meta-ecosystem theory, and while we may label animals as important mediators of ecosystem services, we lack predictive inference of their relative roles and impacts on diverse ecosystems. Recently developed technologies and methods — tracking devices, mechanistic movement models, diet reconstruction techniques and remote sensing — have the potential to facilitate the quantification of animal-vectored nutrient flows and increase the predictive power of meta-ecosystem theory. Understanding the mechanisms by which animals shape ecosystem dynamics may be important for ongoing conservation, rewilding, and restoration initiatives around the world, and for more accurate models of ecosystem nutrient budgets. We provide conceptual examples that show how our proposed integration of methodologies could help investigate ecosystem impacts of animal movement. We conclude by describing practical applications to understanding cross-ecosystem contributions of animals on the move.

scholarly journals China’s Sharing Economy of Mobility Industry: From Perspective of Industrial Ecosystem

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danning Zhang ◽  
Yanshu Shi ◽  
Weiwei Li
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Profit Model ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Industrial Ecosystem ◽  
Ecosystem Theory ◽  
Industry Integration

The development of China’s sharing economy has slowed down significantly after experiencing the savage growth since the beginning of 2018 and has entered the turning point of structural adjustment. Factors including homogeneous and single profit model, excessive reliance on capital, and the immaturity of win-win industrial ecosystem are major bottlenecks. Therefore, how to overcome the obstacles is a key issue to be solved urgently. In view of the sharing economy’s characteristics of industry integration and cross-boundary symbiosis, the concept of sharing economy industrial ecosystem was put forward. Furthermore, social network analysis (SNA) was used to solve the problem of weak synergy in the development of China’s sharing economy and strive to break through the development bottleneck in order to realize the optimization of China’s sharing industry ecosystem and the sustainable development of industry. Specially, we proposed a fusion framework of industrial ecosystem and SNA including macro, meso, and micro dimensions. Macro analysis is based on the fusion of ecological environment in ecosystem theory and density analysis in SNA. Meso analysis is based on the fusion of ecological communities in ecosystem theory and subgroup analysis in SNA. Micro analysis is based on the fusion of an ecological niche in ecosystem theory and centrality analysis in SNA. It was found that the ecosystem of sharing mobility industry has been basically established, and the ecological diversity is good, including sharing mobility, third-party platform, automobile manufacturing, insurance and venture capital enterprises and universities. In addition, some sharing enterprises, typically represented by Didi, are upgrading their strategies to ecological development through cross-border integration. Mobile payment plays a vital role in developing China’s sharing mobility industry.

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