constant. However, constancy of resources that are used in specific environments can
hardly be observed at local or regional scales because habitats are open systems.
Extreme events such as volcanic eruptions, land slides, or extreme drought or
cold may destroy ecosystems, alter ecosystem structures or reduce the biodiversity
dramatically. In the case of extreme events which totally destroy all the biomass,
productivity and diversity, the resource use will be reset in relation to the amount of
resources that could be used. In many regions gradually and long-term increasing
resource use by a growing number of individuals and species which enhance their
teamwork over time can be interrupted by sudden harsh or catastrophic events which
stop the biotic use of resources, and the adjustment of the resource use may start
again with the sequence of immigration, niche occupation, growth and reproduction,
cooperation, competition, succession, together with a more and more effective
resource use, and in parallel—in a long-term perspective—changes of genetic
material (evolution). Environmental catastrophes, but also human activities, and
even other ecosystem engineers such as megaherbivores in savannas can turn former
positive adaptations into uneligible adaptations.
In economy, both producers and consumers try to maximize something due to
particular constraints and interests—profit or utility, for example. For understanding
the whole economic system of producers and consumers it is important to find out
which one of the parties is more powerful. Are the producers controlling the
consumers or vice versa? Or are both parties equally controlling the counterpart?
Most likely, none of the parties can act without respecting or cooperating with the
other one. Furthermore, both parties agree in the protection of utilities that humans
gain from natural resources which has been called resourcism (Uggla 2010, 84).
In the ecological community, the whole system can be divided into several parties
and every ecosystem is more complicated than an economic system managed by
humans. To uncover not only important processes of the ecosystem but the improvement of the processes remains difficult because also the levels of the hierarchy can
alternate; where resources, producers and consumers such as therophytes,
cryptophytes, hemicryptophytes, chamaephytes, phanerophytes, epiphytes,
herbivors, predators, parasites, decomposers, including humans, are working
together, cooperating and/or competing, where uncountable intraspecific and interspecific relationships together with random effects are relevant, where microbiota of
associated microbiomes are extremely important.
Is it in this context necessary to focus on the whole ecosystem or would it be
possible to explain the features of the ecosystem by looking at the ecological
position of individuals only? Individuals have their own specific genetic material
and environment. They are more or less independent of each other. However, also
here the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Many interspecific relationships
such as pollination cannot be explained as the sum of individual processes or
behaviours. The ecology and evolution of a flowering plant individual that necessarily requires insect visitation for pollination cannot be explained by its own
morphology or anatomy alone.
Resources, biomass, productivity and species diversity of the ecosystem are
accessible to standard field and laboratory methods in ecology. The adaptation/
Resources for Humans, Plants and Animals: Who Is the Ruler of the Driver? And:. . .
97
hardly be observed at local or regional scales because habitats are open systems.
Extreme events such as volcanic eruptions, land slides, or extreme drought or
cold may destroy ecosystems, alter ecosystem structures or reduce the biodiversity
dramatically. In the case of extreme events which totally destroy all the biomass,
productivity and diversity, the resource use will be reset in relation to the amount of
resources that could be used. In many regions gradually and long-term increasing
resource use by a growing number of individuals and species which enhance their
teamwork over time can be interrupted by sudden harsh or catastrophic events which
stop the biotic use of resources, and the adjustment of the resource use may start
again with the sequence of immigration, niche occupation, growth and reproduction,
cooperation, competition, succession, together with a more and more effective
resource use, and in parallel—in a long-term perspective—changes of genetic
material (evolution). Environmental catastrophes, but also human activities, and
even other ecosystem engineers such as megaherbivores in savannas can turn former
positive adaptations into uneligible adaptations.
In economy, both producers and consumers try to maximize something due to
particular constraints and interests—profit or utility, for example. For understanding
the whole economic system of producers and consumers it is important to find out
which one of the parties is more powerful. Are the producers controlling the
consumers or vice versa? Or are both parties equally controlling the counterpart?
Most likely, none of the parties can act without respecting or cooperating with the
other one. Furthermore, both parties agree in the protection of utilities that humans
gain from natural resources which has been called resourcism (Uggla 2010, 84).
In the ecological community, the whole system can be divided into several parties
and every ecosystem is more complicated than an economic system managed by
humans. To uncover not only important processes of the ecosystem but the improvement of the processes remains difficult because also the levels of the hierarchy can
alternate; where resources, producers and consumers such as therophytes,
cryptophytes, hemicryptophytes, chamaephytes, phanerophytes, epiphytes,
herbivors, predators, parasites, decomposers, including humans, are working
together, cooperating and/or competing, where uncountable intraspecific and interspecific relationships together with random effects are relevant, where microbiota of
associated microbiomes are extremely important.
Is it in this context necessary to focus on the whole ecosystem or would it be
possible to explain the features of the ecosystem by looking at the ecological
position of individuals only? Individuals have their own specific genetic material
and environment. They are more or less independent of each other. However, also
here the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Many interspecific relationships
such as pollination cannot be explained as the sum of individual processes or
behaviours. The ecology and evolution of a flowering plant individual that necessarily requires insect visitation for pollination cannot be explained by its own
morphology or anatomy alone.
Resources, biomass, productivity and species diversity of the ecosystem are
accessible to standard field and laboratory methods in ecology. The adaptation/
Resources for Humans, Plants and Animals: Who Is the Ruler of the Driver? And:. . .
97