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Achieving Balance In Ecosystems: A Trapeze Act?
from:According to strict theory, balance in an ecosystem would be reached when the various populations in the system are neither increasing nor decreasing but holding steady because the various parts of the ecosystem keep each other in perfect balance.
In a coral reef ecosystem, for example, this might look as follows: (1) Coral reef absorbs nutrients directly from the water and from plankton swimming past the reef; (2) small parrotfish feed on the coral reef; and (3) larger fish, such as snappers and barracuda, feed on the smaller fish like the parrotfish. Here is where the theory breaks down, however, because if the coral reef is not growing and expanding its territory, it is considered unhealthy or dying. Similarly, as the reef itself expands, it is able to support more and more animals in categories (2) and (3) respectively—meaning that none of the populations is actually stable, but rather growing. In reality, then, balance in an ecosystem is a dynamic, changing thing which generally implies a gradual growth of the populations within the ecosystem.
But when we talk about balance in ecosystems, it not only refers to balance within the ecosystem, but also to balance between ecosystems. To wit: no ecosystem exists in a vacuum. Each ecosystem has other systems butting up against it, intersecting it, and often intermeshing with it. To continue the example from above, a coral reef is located in water, putting it in close proximity to a marine ecosystem (or more than one), where there may be even larger fish, sharks, and other animals. In this situation, balance between ecosystems means that the sharks don't eat all the parrotfish, nor do the fish living on the coral reef suddenly migrate out to the marine ecosystem.
On the other hand, Andrewatha and Birch proposed the idea in their 1954 "The Distribution and bundance of animals" that balance in ecosystems is actually impossible. Because they observed that territorial behavior, rather than a check in food supply, limited population numbers, they viewed the flux in population size as part of normal behavior patterns rather than part of an ecosystem response. Although this view is probably extreme, it illustrates the truth that a static population is not possible in the real world.
Seen from a global perspective, balance in the world ecosystem depends upon balance between ecosystems in the world. Such is the subject of many current headlines about climate change, overfishing, and the like. Yet it is important to keep perspective that neither has the world's ecosystem remained stagnant over time; populations have increased, decreased, and even gone extinct, entirely independent of human involvement. The question becomes, then: To what extent human involvement has changed the balance in ecosystems beyond what it would have been without any human interference? The answer, right now, is anybody's guess.
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Nokia plans changes to its manufacturing operations to increase efficiency in ... - Reuters
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Sierra Club to Obama: 'protect public interest' in BP settlement - DigitalJournal.com
 DigitalJournal.com | Sierra Club to Obama: 'protect public interest' in BP settlement DigitalJournal.com The Sierra Club, one of the country's leading environmental groups, is calling on Obama to take strong action against BP in any possible claims settlement of the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act over the oil company's devastating Gulf of Mexico ... Sierra Club urges strong action on any oil spill settlement Need quick action |
Oil spill brings attention to delicate Gulf coast - Fox News
 msnbc.com | Oil spill brings attention to delicate Gulf coast Fox News TIVOLI, Texas – For decades, farmers and fishermen along the Gulf of Mexico watched as their sensitive ecosystem's waters slowly got dirtier and islands eroded, all while the country largely ignored the destruction. It took BP PLC's well blowing out in ... Oil Spill Brings Attention To Gulf Farmers, Fishermen |
Mexico: you can't lead in wetland protection if you're losing ground - Natural Resources Defense Council (blog)
 Natural Resources Defense Council (blog) | Mexico: you can't lead in wetland protection if you're losing ground Natural Resources Defense Council (blog) He's right – environmentally-sustainable and appropriately sized tourism can indeed maintain important ecosystem services and bring needed benefits to coastal communities. In fact, when overfishing nearly devastated the Cabo Pulmo coral reef –at 20000 ... |
Farmers Can Grow Food for All, as Long as Ecosystems Hold - Bloomberg
 Bloomberg | Farmers Can Grow Food for All, as Long as Ecosystems Hold Bloomberg Farm run-off of phosphorus and nitrogen, another key fertilizer, collects in rivers and bays, creating oxygen-deprived dead zones for fish, such as the 7000-square-mile region where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. |