 Beyond identity crisis: The challenge of recontextualizing ecosystem delimitationDimitrios Schizas and George Stamou Ecological Modelling, 2010, vol. 221, issue 12, 1630-1635 Abstract: In a series of papers, three important system ecologists, Bernard C. Patten, Sven E. Jorgensen and Milan Straškraba attempt to revise the old ecosystem field and construct a new systems ecology. Inevitably, their attempt is faced with some of the same problems that led the field to decline. The indefiniteness of ecosystem boundaries is one of them, maybe the most important. Systems’ ecology failure to define ecosystem boundaries was considered a significant obstacle for the conceptualization of the ecosystem as a valid organizing unit of nature and resulted in a disciplinary identity crisis. To surmount this crisis, the authors introduce into the field innovative ideas which have their origin in the so-called postmodern network theories. These ideas reinforce the concept of environment and allow for a relative conception of space, which might have beneficial effects in delimiting ecosystems. However, the problem-solving potential of these ideas is not activated because the authors remain stitched to the Odumian mode of ecosystem thinking and avoid recontextualizing the old building blocks. Keywords: Ecosystem boundaries; Network analysis; Systems ecology; Philosophy of ecology (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:221:y:2010:i:12:p:1630-1635 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.03.004 Access Statistics for this article Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier |
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