Conservation must protect disturbance regimes, not just taxa, to preserve biodiversity

Evidence

As human populations and their demands for resources increase, the consequence of natural and man-induced disturbances will be of increasing concern to human society. For numerous reasons (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1981), protection of the world’s biota is essential. Such actions must also protect the processes that resulted in the evolution and persistence of that biota. Disturbance regimes, such as the water-level dynamics of the Everglades, must be protected to preserve associated genetic (Frankel and Soulé, 1981), population (Franklin, 1980), and assemblage (Kushlan, 1979; Karr, 1982a,b) dynamics. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1120

Categorization

• XREF: Reaches the polyad’s environmental-justice thread and the landscape course: Everglades water-level dynamics are the classic ‘what happened here’ regime-preservation case, connecting to Reading the Landscape diagnostics. — connects to: Fire suppression restructures the whole ecosystem and reduces overall wildlife diversity — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 442; Man-controlled burning can still yield a natural ecosystem — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 477; Current conservation treats local symptoms, not underlying land-sickness causes — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 694 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Suppressing disturbance makes ecosystems more vulnerable to catastrophe #corroborates (0.90) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2073
• Large-scale disturbances can prevent landscapes from reaching equilibrium #corroborates (0.85) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 2272
• Unrelated sessile communities obey the same disturbance-diversity rule #expands (0.78) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 300
• Arid ecosystems lack treefall and use distinct disturbance agents #qualifies (0.75) — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 1143