EcosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More aren’t built by exerting power, instead they settle into patterns based on an outside force – a force that is yielding. This force doesn’t attack ecosystems or use its strength to build them, it is an all-powerful way that everything is created. Everything that ever existed was shaped by this mechanism.
What we call ecosystems evolved in a similar way to how species evolve. In fact, the evolution of a species and its landscape are connected in the same way as DNA is connected to amino acids. All amino acids in nature are left-handed so DNA spirals a certain way and landscapes enable only certain animals to exist, some to survive and others to perish.
Outcomes are selected as the most likely to surviveDarwin’s theory how species are formed, where those that stand in closest competition with those undergoing beneficial modification and improvement, will go extinct faster. Natural selection is by survival of the likeliest, not survival of the fittest. The fittest are only likely to survive because they happen to be most suited to the environment into which they are born. The More based on what came before and the prevailing conditions at the time. Human animals didn’t evolve because someone decided to throw energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More behind us … we were the latest in the most likely animals to exist because several billion years of evolution benefited our new type of creature.
This is also why we cannot tackle biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More loss by straightforward intervention and why the intention to ‘manage’ wildlife outcomes is misguided.
Years ago I was on an Antarctic yacht in the Southern Ocean captained by an explorer called David Pryce. David wouldn’t have non-stick mats in his galley and I asked why. He explained: no matter how good your non-stick mats are, eventually a wave will strike that’s big enough to throw your hot bowl of soup across the room and scald someone. His yacht had twice fallen off the back of waves in the Antarctic and done a full three hundred and sixty degree rotation before settling back on course–we can learn a lot from sailors, who spend time among nature’s forces. Sailors know how to yield to the wind, to make headway without breaking a mast or worse.
When we build technology or use science to attempt to ‘manage’ nature or wildlife, we assume outside forces are consistent or benign when in fact, we are relentlessly subject to changes in energy-flow and this is most distinctly revealed by our climate. Climate is a redistribution of the Sun’s energy and as we’ve introduced more of this into the atmosphere, we’ve created bigger waves and greater risk of freak pulses of energy knocking our food bowls over. We build ever higher sea defences that inevitably fall short or crumble from the resistance of heavier seas. It’s the same when we try to force wildlife into compliance.
Unfortunately, humans have become over-confident in our belief that technology and science can win a fight against nature. The reality is, the forces that deliver planetary energy and shape the entire universe can never be overthrown but we can sail among this energy, if we learn to navigate.
Plants are Earth’s way of capturing energy from the Sun –like the sails of a yacht capture the energy from wind – but it is animals that are the mechanism for absorbing this free energyThe energy of a system that is emitted as waste and is not part of ecosystem processes. There is always some free surplus energy as this creates the basis for evolution where new species exploit gaps in the ecosystem where free energy becomes available. Surplus energy can occur as a result of disruption or disturbance. When free surplus energy reaches More, stabilising it and providing a vehicle for our existence.
Killing animals does the very opposite of what we need to survive. Every time we try to ‘manage’ animals, we are not only at greater risk of sinking beneath the waves, we are also creating stormier seas. When we devastate biodiversity and lose the life support processes animals create for each other, our climate situation gets worse … perhaps the story of Noah’s ark has something to it after all? Perhaps it is a several thousand year-old metaphor penned by a long-forgotten conservationist that had observed the collapse of animal populations in North Africa, leading to catastrophic floods, famines and plagues.
I am increasingly cynical about any suggestion that we can alter or change ecosystem outcomes for the better, by removing animal biomassThe weight of living organisms. Biomass can be measured in relation to the amount of carbon, the dry weight (with all moisture removed) or living weight. In general it can be used to describe the volume of energy that is contained inside systems, as the size of animals relates to their metabolism and therefore, how much energy they contain and More … that goes equally for culling existing animals or indeed, destroying animal-rich environments like the Amazon rainforest. Every time we impose change on ecosystems we are attacking them with our own energy–we are sailing too close to the wind– rather than allowing ecosystems to flourish and reform stabilising patterns of their own accord.
Nature is immovable and the more we try to combat it; the more we apply our own force against this inexorable stone-wall, the less space we give ourselves to survive. Abundant animals are the only mechanism that holds back the tide of our own demise and we’re literally squeezing them out of existence.
In order to create a future for ourselves, one where we have the greatest chance of surviving, we have to nurture wildlife prosperity and recreate the structures that provide life support for all animals–because that is all we are and we cannot do this alone. It’s that simple really.
A yielding force can’t be beaten, as it will use its might against you, until you die of exhaustion. We can’t continue to sail into the wind, as the metaphor says, we must ‘change tack’ to survive. We can avoid exhausting ourselves into extinction, if instead of attacking nature, we rebuild our lives around it and that means creating a change in human values when it comes to wildlife.
Spotlight
This paper describes how accelerated change in the turnover of vegetation has affected islands over the last few thousands years. For many islands, widescale return to pre-colonisation ecosystems by humans is an unrealistic goal. [On a side note, the paper does not consider the critical role of loss of wildlife on these systems – collapse of seabird colonies is of particular concern, since this affects fish abundance and climate]. Read more here.
