Ecological Gambling
The High Risks and Rewards of Species Introductions
- Robert T. Paine, PhD;
- Thomas M. Zaret, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
MOST natural ecosystems are overwhelmingly complex, and conventional ecological wisdom holds that tropical communities are more so than their temperature or higherlatitude equivalents. This belief has been fundamental to the development of a concept of ecosystem stability: complexity was equated to buffering capacity, and the highly diverse tropical communities were therefore assumed to be more stable than their temperate zone counterparts. Ecologists are now realizing that complexity does not invariably confer stability and that dogmatic adherence to this belief is unwarranted. Not surprisingly, a substantial portion of the challenge to the older ideas is coming from data based on the fate of species introductions. Thus, the argument goes, evidence for a stable system should be observed in the level of resistance to invasion, or some minimization of the impact of a successful invasion. Conversely, less stable communities will be more invadable, or will show greater change following a successful invasion.
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (Dr. Paine).
