Ecosystem Services & Infrastructures
Basic Olicognograph: Ecologic Diversity
Humans theo-ecologism future
Primitive humans learned a lot about Nature and think complicatedly on Nature for good reasons. With ambitions to superate others and speculations that we could fix plenty of things in advance, started all the mess. Belief to expect too much and ask it to Gods. Other humans discovering humans and to call them "others". May be this helped to start to eat them; as they were 'others' and suspected to eat us. The differences may be not so important. Cannibalism may have turn to symbolic ritual or food supply when social and ecological crisis: no wheat, no fish: eat someone and drink their blood. Then towns was made and Gods turned stronger. And towns's gods asking for human sacrifices. Increasing other humans densities, as well as of oneselves, it was not a good policy to eat ourselves. You need armed arms to make wars. And to turn to women (many do not fight well) and children (they do not work well) for gods' sake. My owm God is stronger than your's so where the stronger one is with us. Then it may have been understood, for better future, that compassion is a need: so for good time sacrifice a lamb, but in any case bring first your boy, in any eventuallity do not disbelief: trust ! To start to think that one God was enough if omniscient and omnipotent. At first one God for the heaven and its replica or ambassador on Earth. God damned I cannot fly ! Business of priests and drugs, diversity was under threat. Not so easy to overcome. Back to the zoo, for some or a just one God one in the heaven for us, and not for you: zookeepers! Be Him compassionate for us and bad with you. Not so omniscient and omnipotent and did not protect us enough ? Make it at least compassionate to everyone and not understandable... out a ticket we we can sell you and you buy it: sinner! Not everyone to be so easilly blessed by him at the instant you, as a human community, was discovered. Start to work for having your ticket of entry: forget that shit of many gods and non registered neither chartered places to prey: the axe or the baptism; and be burned if you disagree. And so on and smoothly and more efficiently a system of moral rules. Around everythings created by him for our management under an international division of labor. Trade for our profits, even if you cannot (He bless us). And to prove you that I care my interests: let me show you my ability to distroy as far as I can, especially your sustainable systems. Sustainability was not necessarilly fitting well with my moral principles but God told me that my civilization is right and its changes will cost you more. Even better: "He is telling me that, right now", but you cannot ear Him. He is only talking to few of us or - just to me my dear servants ! - And let me show the care I have for your externalities and the Tragedy of your Commons. Especially the ones on which I cannot put easilly my property rights: accumulation. Clergy ? They often looked like (more efficient) politicians . Restructurations and wars for religions ? plenty of them. Now ? Priests of finance ? - modelize ! Blessed by the climate ? - Heat the climate ! . Poors of the Earth ? - Unite in waste ! Titanic ? - do not remind me, where did I put that keys of poors' dormitories? - Be pleased: jellyfishes do not eat plastic bags. Ecologists? - anyhow to know well always takes more time than wrong decisions... well in the hope that there is still a : ? if not: altzheimer will free regression and civilization will loose consciousness, may be hopefully before the great meal of cannibal jellyfishes, thanks to Medusa their godess.
Global Concepts
"Ecosystems display the following characteristics: 1) Emergence: a system-level phenomena is emergent if it requires new categories to describe it, which are not required to describe the behaviour of the underlying components. In other words, interactive individual components instantiate emerging patterns at the level of the system. 2) Path dependency: due to the highly non-linear relationships between individual components or parts of the system, a given system-level phenomena can be achieved, in theory, through an infinite number of combinations at the micro-level. 3) Non state equilibrium: the Complex Adaptive Systems display an everchanging dynamic equilibrium, driving back and forth the system between chaotic to ordered states. On the edge of chaos, these systems are very sensitive to any perturbation from the individual components. 4) Adaptation: the evolution of the system is driven by the co-evolution of its individual components. They adapt to their environment and modify it in a recursive way. If the components are cognitive beings, the adaptation relies mainly on the individual and collective learning processes".
"Planetary biodiversity can be viewed under 4 components, that of species, that of high-level taxonomic groups, that of their genetics, and that of ecosystems and their functions and services for humanity. Hypotheses to account for global patterns of biodiversity distribution 1) Evolutionary time: Older communities have high diversity compared to newly evolved ones, because more time has been available in the former for development of biota in an uninterrupted fashion. 2) Climate stability: Uniformity of climate as well as relative constancy of resources in a stable community results in the formation of numerous niches allowing more species to occupy the unit habitat space, by evolution of finer specializations and adaptations. 3) Spatial heterogeneity: Availability of a wide range of ecological niches in more spatially complex environment favours coexistence of more species, due to greater availability of resources and less competition between the species. 4) Productivity: Diversity of a community is determined by the amount of energy flowing through the food web. Some hypothesized that species richness correlates with the available solar energy as measured by temperature and sunshine hours".
"Major strategies of biodiversity conservation would be. 1) In situ establish: - protected area network, with appropriate management practices; - corridors to link fragments; - restore degraded habitats within and outside. 2) Ex situ establish: - botanical and zoological gardens; - conservation stands (banks of germplasm, pollen, seed, seedlings, tissue culture, gene and DNA, etc.). 3 ) Reduction of: - biotic pressure; - anthropogenic pressure on natural populations by cultivating them elsewhere. 4) Rehabilitation: - identify and rehabilitate threatened species; - launch augmentation, reintroduction or introduction programmes".
Ecosystems Ecology Economics (and/or other perspectives)
"Ecosystem Services typology commonly proposed includes 4 categories: 1) provisioning functions; 2) regulation functions; 3) habitat functions; and 4) cultural and amenity functions".
"1) Provisioning functions comprise functions that supply products to mankind; into 2 classes: - production; - carrier functions. Production functions reflect goods and services produced by or in natural or semi-natural ecosystems ( fruit, plant with pharmaceutical properties). These goods can be harvested as a result of mostly natural processes. Carrier functions reflect the goods and services provided through mostly human activities in the landscape (agriculture, mining, etc.)".
"2) Regulation functions result from the capacity of landscapes to regulate climate, hydrological and bio-chemical cycles, earth surface processes, and a variety of biological processes. These services often have an important spatial aspect; e.g. the flood control service of an upper watershed forest is only relevant in the flood zone downstream of the forest".
"3) Habitat functions comprise the functions crucial to the maintenance of nature and biodiversity, including the refugium and the nursery functions. The refugium function reflects the habitat that landscape units can provide to (threatened) fauna and flora, the nursery function indicates that some landscapes provide a particularly suitable location for reproduction and involves a regulating impact of a landscape on the populations of other landscapes".
"4) Cultural and amenity functions relate to the benefits people obtain from landscapes through recreation, cognitive development, relaxation, and spiritual reflection. This may involve actual visits to the area, indirectly enjoying the area (e.g. through nature movies), or gaining satisfaction from the knowledge that a landscape contains important biodiversity or cultural monuments. The latter may occur without having the intention of ever visiting the area. These services have also been named 'information functions' ".
When conservation cannot make easilly complete exclusion (see that some respect have started with remaining tribes refusing modern civilization); better to establish programs allowing some economical activities; to maintain social sustainability. Payments for environmental services have also started. Assessing carefully what can be done, rules and regulations is all the aim of Environmental Impact Assessment. Measure is not so easy. Just use average can make problems. For example "There are several potential biases with visitor intercept samples. 2 biases are that those who visit these recreation sites more frequently and those who stay longer. They are more likely to be sampled due to their extended presence". Economics science is even harder in Ecology".
Another important point is the establishment at any level from international to local systems of regulations or "factors conducive to emergence of local institutions to manage the commons can be":
"1) Resource system characteristics - Small size - Well-demarcated boundaries - Low levels of mobility - Possibilities of storage of benefits from the resource - Predictability - Indicators of resource conditions are available at reasonable costs - Traceability of resource improvement to a particular intervention - Feasibility of improving the resource".
"2) Group Characteristics: - Small size - Clear boundaries - Shared norms - Trust - Past successful/organizational experiences - Appropriate leadership - Interdependence among group members - Homogeneity of interests (even with diversity of economic and political assets) - Low relative poverty - Low discount rate is Markup".
"3) Relationship between resource system and group: - Overlap between user group residential location and resource location - High levels of dependence by group members on resource system - Demand growth and technical change are gradual enough to give emerging institutional arrangements time to establish".
"4) Institutional arrangements: - Ability to establish favorable institutional arrangements".
"5) External environment: - Autonomy - Availability of low cost adjudication - Low cost exclusion technology with respect to the external world - Supportive external sanctioning institutions - Appropriate levels of external aid to compensate local users for conservation activities".
Ecoservices Project Frame
"Ecosystem's basic services could be for example (make a list in any case or projects): carbon storage, flood control, forage production, outdoor recreation, crop pollination, and water provision. With these 6 ecosystem services, following questions could be adressed: 1) How much of each service is being generated by each land parcel? 2) What are the spatial associations between the lands required for protecting biodiversity and supplying different ecosystem services? 3) How much of each ecosystem service—plus biodiversity protection—is provided by a network of lands prioritized for biodiversity, compared to networks designed for multiple services? Targeting ecosystem services directly can meet the multiple ecosystem services and biodiversity goals more efficiently but cannot substitute for targeted biodiversity protection".
"Objectives of an Environmental Services Infrastructuring: 1) To revegetate areas previously disturbed by mining practices by introducing plant succession: - establishing forest communities of native species. - utilizing plant densities that offer a compromise between timber production and wildlife habitat. - incorporating forest cover into areas of streamside management zones.. 2) To create viable aquatic and wetland environments: - establishing variety in water depth and soil saturation levels. - utilizing natural filters for adjacent farming activities. - developing habitats for wildlife. 3) To maximize farm production and increase herd capacity: - developing areas that exhibit the best combination of site factors for cropland and pasture lands. - meeting the demands of cattle production. - utilizing a “gateless” fencing concept. 4) To accommodate the public needs for diverse outdoor recreation opportunities: - incorporating facilities for extended stays. - utilizing wildlife habitats for hunting and fishing activities when appropriate. - incorporating archery and firearms range facilities d. adhering to barrier free design standards throughout the site".
Practical Ecological Activities of such program could address (to detailed according sub-spaces) 1) Pasture: Crops, Fencing, Herd Feed, Hay Storage, Wildlife Forage, Mineral Stations, Forage 2) Woodlands: Shade, Wildlife Habitat, Watering Troughs, Vegetation Forestry/Timbering: 3) Fallow Areas, Wildlife Habitat, Recreational Trails, Vegetation, Ponds, 4) Watering Troughs Fish Habitat: Recreation Facilities, 5) Wetlands, Lodge, Wildlife Habitat, Rental Cabins, Fencing, Cart Barn, Vegetation 6) Drop-off Area: Parking, Docks, Trails, Blinds, Decks".
"Steiner proposes an ecological planning model for decision making about the use of the landscape” model involves interconnected steps, including: 1) Identification of issue or issues. 2) Establishment of a goal to address the issue(s). 3) Inventories and analyses of biophysical and sociocultural systems from the larger down to the specific level. 4) Detailed studies to link inventory and analysis to problem(s) and goal(s). 5) Development of concepts and options. 6) Preparation of a landscape plan. 7) Presentation to and response from affected public. 8) Development of detailed designs for individual sites. 9) Implementation of detailed designs. 10) Administration of plan".
