Principles of Ecosystem Sustainability

Chapin, F. Stuart; Torn, M. S.; Tateno, Masaki

doi:10.1086/285969

Cited by 200 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Maintain their characteristic organismal diversity, biogeochemical cycling and productivity through a series of normal/cyclical environmental perturbations [41].…”

Section: Sustainable Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

2013

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Abstract:The rapid rate of anthropogenic-related climate change is expected to severely impact ecosystems and their constituent organisms, leading to mass extinction. A rapid adaptive response of animals to such change could be due to reversible phenotypic flexibility, including behavioral flexibility. Our model, the African striped mouse Rhabdomys, is a small rodent widely distributed in southern Africa. The desert-living species R. pumilio displays social flexibility, whereby individuals switch their social organization in response to prevailing conditions, potentially allowing for persistence in rapidly changing environments. Individuals of the species from the moist grasslands (R. dilectus) show some flexible traits, but opportunities to utilize this potential are apparently not realized. The climate in southern Africa is predicted to become drier, making both desert and grassland species vulnerable to environmental change. Based on realized or potential social flexibility in striped mice, we provide three (not mutually exclusive) scenarios that consider: (i) extinction of the desert species as its habitat changes; (ii) range expansion and utilization of pre-existing adaptations of the desert species to displace the current grassland species; and (iii) grassland species exploiting their potential flexibility (behavioral adaptation) and surviving in their current OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 164 habitat. Behavioral flexibility is costly but could allow species to persist in rapidly changing environments.

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“…Maintain their characteristic organismal diversity, biogeochemical cycling and productivity through a series of normal/cyclical environmental perturbations [41].…”

Section: Sustainable Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

2013

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“…From this perspective, the understanding would prevail that competition -offered by the population dynamics in the formation of the biotic communities -could only be developed from the formation of flows of energy and nutrients, thus integrating a set of interdependent relationships (Chapin et al, 2002). Thus, a sustainable ecosystem could be conceived as one that "(...) over the normal cycle of disturbance events, maintains its characteristic diversity of major functional groups, productivity, soil fertility, and rates of biogeochemical cycling " (CHAPIN et al, 1996).…”

Section: Ecology Scarcity and Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Entre Hibridismos E Polissemias: Para Uma Análise Sociológica Das Sustentabilidades

2015

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O objetivo do artigo é formular uma proposta de análise sociológica sobre sustentabilidade, a partir de sua problematização nas áreas de ecologia, economia, sociologia e antropologia. Partindo do reconhecimento de que sua produção científica apresenta-se polissêmica, híbrida e assimétrica quanto aos conteúdos ecológicos, econômicos e socioantropológicos, busca-se uma metodologia capaz de apreender a articulação interna das propostas e as práticas interdisciplinares que delas derivam. Fundamentada na teoria da modernização reflexiva e dos estudos sociais das ciências, propõe-se que as diferentes sustentabilidades podem ser analisadas a partir da atenção para: as concepções ontológicas de interação entre eventos humanos e não humanos; a noção de perturbação, que abriga riscos e ameaças; e as consequentes estratégias de tratamento dos dilemas ambientais. Espera-se contribuir para um olhar sociológico atento às articulações entre artefato científico e propositividade política no contexto das questões ambientais.

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“…In the past, functional groups have been delimited both by their response to perturbation or on the basis that they use the same resource (Smith et al, 1997) and neither of these per se coincides with a classification according to productivity. Redefining functional groups with respect to their impact on ecosystem processes, as in Chapin et al (1996), therefore seems useful.…”

Section: Productivity-diversity Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystem

Santa-Regina¹

2013

American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

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Succession is one of the most studied processes in ecology and succession theory provides strong predictability. However, few attempts have been made to influence the course of succession thereby testing the hypothesis that the passage of one stage is essential to enter a next one. At each stage of succession ecosystem processes may be affected by the diversity of species present, but there is little empirical evidence showing that plant species diversity may affect succession. The main objective in the present study is to test if there is any effect of plant species diversity on the functioning of artificially-created grassland communities. We were mostly interested in how successful is the sowing of meadow species into newly abandoned land and how long do the effect of initial sowing persist, how is affected the set of natural colonizers, which includes both the weed species and also the later successional species arriving naturally into the zone. One of the main questions concerning succession is to which extent the trajectory may be predictable or not. What will be the consequence of the different succession pathways for ecosystem processes, such as productivity and resource utilization, as well as species composition of both above and belowground communities? What will be the subsequent effects of feed back to vegetation development through initial manipulation of vegetation after land abandonment? And, finally, how general may results be when obtained in specific conditions? Our hypothesis is that an increase in the initial plant species diversity at the start of secondary succession enhances the amount of biomass produced and consequently stimulates the soil microbial biomass and the abundance of soil invertebrates. It has been suggested that changes in plant species diversity affect several ecosystem processes, such as primary productivity, nutrient retention and vegetation dynamics. A positive impact of species diversity on plant productivity has been explained by the complementarity of resource use among plant species or their functional groups.

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Principles of Ecosystem Sustainability

Cited by 200 publications

References 85 publications

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

Extinction or Survival? Behavioral Flexibility in Response to Environmental Change in the African Striped Mouse Rhabdomys

Entre Hibridismos E Polissemias: Para Uma Análise Sociológica Das Sustentabilidades

Restoration of Biodiversity and Ecosystem

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