Individuals, populations and the balance of nature: the question of persistence in ecology

Walter, Gimme H.

doi:10.1007/s10539-007-9106-6

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Ecology, as the science that describes how nature works and how we are interrelated with it, has given power to various metaphors serving as popularizing forms of knowledge which contribute in informing the public about natural mechanisms and processes, such as the 'Web of Life' metaphor, the 'Mother Nature' metaphor and the 'Balance of Nature' metaphor. Greater attention is paid to the 'Balance of Nature' metaphor and its implications for scientific practice, philosophy of science and education (Cooper 2003;Mappin and Johnson 2005;Walter 2008;Ibarra and Gil 2009;Ladle and Gilson 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards a Critical Re-Appraisal of Ecology Education: Scheduling an Educational Intervention to Revisit the ‘Balance of Nature’ Metaphor

Hovardas

Korfiatis

2010

Sci & Educ

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The 'Balance of Nature' metaphor is a pervasive idea in ecology. However, the scientific community acknowledged during the last decades that equilibrium conditions are rare, while disturbance events are not uncommon. We suggest that the exclusive teaching of the 'Balance of Nature' metaphor produces cultural, scientific and learning misconceptions about the structure and function of nature. We outline an exemplary educational intervention for high school students to exhibit that the use of computer simulations could serve important educational goals in ecology and environmental education, such as the liberation of the concept of 'balance' of its metaphysic burden, the comprehension of the dynamics and the systemic nature of ecological processes and the appreciation of the mutual relation between society and nature.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Balance at the population level is related to the fact that populations are considered to be regulated through density dependent mechanisms (Walter 2008). At low population densities, resources are sufficient and population growth is not constrained.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Critical Re-Appraisal of Ecology Education: Scheduling an Educational Intervention to Revisit the ‘Balance of Nature’ Metaphor

Hovardas

Korfiatis

2010

Sci & Educ

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“…Recently it has been argued that a ‘paradigm shift’ (as yet incomplete) is occurring away from such expectations of equilibrium towards ‘the new ecology’ that emphasises contingency, chance and chaos instead (e.g. Adams 1997; Cooper 2001; Walter 2008; Zimmerer 2000).…”

Section: Models Of Nature In Environmental Science and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models of equilibrium, natural agency and environmental change: lay ecologies in UK recreational angling

Eden¹,

Bear

2011

Trans Inst British Geog

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Eden, S., Bear, C. (2011). Models of equilibrium, natural agency and environmental change: lay ecologies in UK recreational angling. Transaction of the Institute of British Geographers, 36 (3), 393-407.This paper studies how anglers in northern England invoke models of equilibrium and 'the balance of nature' in making sense of the water environments where they regularly fish, and how they use these models as norms or ideals when designing environmental management, alongside an emphasis on natural agency and unpredictability. Like other publics, anglers are shown to be a heterogeneous group in how they think about nature and their 'lay ecologies' reflect the problematic way in which equilibrium is normalised in science and policy more generally, showing similarities with professional environmental managers. But anglers are unusual publics, because their lay ecologies are put to work in collectively managing water environments, through stocking, culling and habitat management. Thus anglers' environmental knowledge practices co-produce the environments in which they develop their lay ecologies, making their models of nature and equilibrium important both conceptually and materially.Peer reviewe

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“…Maturana & Varela 1995, p.69). En la Ecología, mientras tanto, esos estados de orden pueden ser la persistencia de ecosistema, de una comunidad, de una población (Walter 2008); y, si nos remitimos a la Autoecología, también incluiremos ahí a la preservación de un viviente individual. Pero también podemos pensar esos órdenes que le interesan al ecólogo en virtud de los procesos que los hacen posibles; tal el caso de la manutención de un ciclo energético, de una cadena trófica o la resiliencia de las complejas relaciones biológicas que aseguran la polinización de determinadas plantas o que facilitan la dispersión de sus semillas.…”

Section: General Juan Domingo Perónunclassified

La ciencia de lo sustentable: razón de ser del discurso funcional en ecología DOI:10.5007/1808-1711.2010v14n3p349

Caponi

2011

Principia

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Abstract. The main cognitive target of Ecology is the functional analysis of the ecological processes and systems. It does not suppose, meanwhile, that these processes and systems are designed systems and processes like individual leaving beings. The Ecology, likewise Physiology, is constitutively guided by the presupposition of a privileged state, to be explained, that it is the persistence of the systems and processes that she studied; and its functional analyses obey to this presupposition. Ecology supposes an ideal of natural order, under which consideration this privileged state is thinking as an improbable state of things and, for that, needed of explanation; and, in what concerns this latter point, the analogy between Ecology and Physiology can also result instructive.Keywords: Design, function, functional imputation, ideal of natural order, privileged state. PresentaciónLa ubicuidad del discurso funcional en Ecología hace pensar que, en esta disciplina, la preservación, o la generación, de ciertos procesos u ordenamientos particulares, ocupa un lugar análogo a aquel ocupado por la preservación y la generación del organismo individual en la Fisiología; y eso permite que nos preguntemos si allí está o no implicada una insostenible representación organicista de los sistemas ecológi-cos. Esta representación, más o menos temperada, tuvo, al final de cuentas, muchos defensores y ella ejerció una marcada gravitación en la historia de la Ecología.1 Por eso, la ubicuidad del discurso funcional que, según digo, caracteriza a esa disciplina, podría ser vista como el resabio, ilegítimo y en última instancia pernicioso, de ese modo organicista de entender a las poblaciones, a las comunidades y a los ecosistemas. Sin embargo, una cosa es afirmar que la Ecología analiza los sistemas y procesos que van más allá de los fenómenos analizados por la Autoecología, 2 refiriéndolos siempre algo que, en cierto sentido, podría ser considerado como un estado privilegiado (cf. Rosenfeld 2002, p.157; El-Hani & Nunes 2009, p.71); y otra cosa diferente es afirmar que los ecólogos piensen esos sistemas y procesos, que están por encima del viviente individual, como si ellos también fuesen totalidades orgánicas, o partes de tales totalidades. Lo primero, como espero poder mostrar, no implica necesariamente lo segundo; y es justamente esa referencia permanente, y constitutiva, a estados privilegiados, y no una representación organicista de los sistemas y procesos ecológicos, Principia 14(3): 349-373 (2010).

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Individuals, populations and the balance of nature: the question of persistence in ecology

Cited by 11 publications

References 66 publications

Towards a Critical Re-Appraisal of Ecology Education: Scheduling an Educational Intervention to Revisit the ‘Balance of Nature’ Metaphor

Towards a Critical Re-Appraisal of Ecology Education: Scheduling an Educational Intervention to Revisit the ‘Balance of Nature’ Metaphor

Models of equilibrium, natural agency and environmental change: lay ecologies in UK recreational angling

La ciencia de lo sustentable: razón de ser del discurso funcional en ecología DOI:10.5007/1808-1711.2010v14n3p349

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