Ecological Redundancy Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Ecological redundancy refers to the concept that natural environments may contain more than one species of flora and fauna capable of performing various required ecological functions, not all of which are immediately obvious. Consequently, one of the important issues involved in restoring or managing ecosystems is to document all involved organisms and attempt to understand their ecological functions. However, this is rarely possible or practical and the result has been environmental degradation and failed restoration efforts in many cases.

The theory of ecological redundancy is controversial. It has been contested on various grounds, including the intuitive, which suggests that conservation of effort or of energy would be better served if species living in close proximity with each other had complementary functions rather than identical ones. If systems were being designed a priori, then it would not represent a compelling case. One of the most influential paradigms for thinking about the numbers and roles of species within an ecosystem is the Lotka-Volterra Model, independently conceived at the same time by two scientists. This model is posited on the presence of predators and prey and the rates of change of the two relative populations. Models based on the Lotka-Volterra Model suggest that functional redundancy is incompatible with stable coexistence. However, the complexity of ecological systems mean that only a partial body of empirical evidence exists and this has been used in various ways to examine the proposition.

One body of thought has been devoted to the concept of ecological resilience, which refers to the ability of an ecosystem to return to a stable state after a period of perturbation (probably caused by an external shock) or to transition between two or more stable states that the ecosystem could inhabit. Functional biodiversity in such ecosystems provides a form of safety buffer for occasions when the ecosystem suffers environmental change. The adaptive capacity of ecosystems describes the level and dynamics of the resilience that they possess and the factors that affect it. In general terms, when the level of redundancy increases, the level of adaptive capacity increases and, hence, the level of resilience increases.

In modern agricultural systems and in industrial exploitation of natural resources, rational systems design calls for minimization of variables and unknown factors. This has led to the elimination of pests through the use of chemicals and the reforestation of plantations with single species. These systems minimize redundancy, which is seen as a negative feature of the system, with potentially dangerous outcomes. Redundancy is a symptom of the chaotic and unpredictable course of the development of ecosystems and their interaction with external phenomena. The sudden introduction of previously unknown species into a local ecosystem can have disastrous results.

Bibliography:

Donald A. Falk, Margaret Palmer, and Joy B. Zedler, eds., Foundations of Restoration Ecology: The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration (Island Press, 2006);
Lance Gunderson, “Ecological Resilience-In Theory and Application,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics (v.31, 2000);
Michel Loreau, “Does Functional Redundancy Exist?” Oikos (v.104/3, 2004);
Brian H. Walker, “Biodiversity and Ecological Redundancy,” Conservation Biology (v.6/1, 1992).