ECOLOGY AND HUMAN-DOMINATED ECOSYSTEMS: A PHILOSOPHICAL STUDY

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

The research proposed here considers as a philosophical question whether and how ecological science may apply to human-dominated ecosystems. The project will analyze different answers ecologists may give to the question whether the objects of ecological theory ("ecosystems," "communities," "lakes," "forests," etc.) consist paradigmatically in relatively "pristine" sites or whether they include as well any interacting assemblage of living things in its physical environment. If the former, ecologists may regard humanity as external to ecosystem structure and as likely to disturb it. If the latter, ecologists may study human-dominated ecosystems as unexceptional objects of research, including human activity in the normal functioning of ecosystems. Many ecologists recognize that most or all places they may study include the consequences of human influence and activity rather than simply or primarily the results of nature's spontaneous course. The proposed research examines the conceptual and normative consequences associated with various choices ecologists may make insofar as they move the focus of their research from relatively "pristine" to human-influenced or dominated ecosystems. Many ecologists have sought to identify general models or principles (such as rules that correlate with ecosystem structure, function or assembly) that would constitute a core theory and distinguish ecology from other often more inductive or historical biological and environmental sciences. These rules, principles, and models, however, traditionally were thought to apply to "natural" communities or ecosystems. If ecologists study the same human-dominated sites as other environmental sciences (including agronomy, veterinary science, plant breeding, silviculture, aquaculture, etc.), it may no longer be as clear how ecology differs from them. The proposed research will analyze various options open to ecologists in determining how the knowledge and insights they seek in studying human-dominated ecosystems may differ from or add to the knowledge or understanding associated with environmental sciences used to create or manage those systems. The proposed research will contribute to an emerging literature on the philosophy of ecology. This literature, described in the proposal, provides a solid foundation, and a useful foil, for the conceptual and normative analysis proposed here. The intellectual merit of the proposed research will depend, of course, on the care and clarity that characterize the normative and conceptual analyses it undertakes. Indicators of likely success may be found in the track record of the PI in: publishing analytical books and articles in related areas of environmental ethics, law, and policy; drawing on the advice of ecologists, environmental policy makers, and philosophical students of ecology; and, commenting on the literature in the field. Public policies for, and courses taught about, the conservation of nature often rely on ecological concepts such as biodiversity, ecosystem stability, resilience, productivity, integrity, and so on. These concepts were developed in the context of an ecological science directed primarily toward relatively "pristine" or "natural" ecosystems. The proposed research will examine the normative consequences for concepts of conservation that may follow insofar as ecological science includes rather than excludes human influence and activity in the sites it studies. To examine this transformation in ecology is to address pressing and vexing issues in conservation science.