Large protected ecosystems are essential testing grounds for ecological theory.

Evidence

For we have not yet learned all that can be gleaned from even rather simple natural history studies in our larger Wilderness Areas, National Parks, and de facto nntural areas. Some widely applicable concept’s, such as the increasing species diversity am1 stability of maturing ecosystems, still nce(l to be t’ested against large-scale real-world examples where the natural patterns arc still discernible. Without such tests, wllil(x bodies of ecological theory may rest on dubious premises, or fail to account for significant exceptions, and yet go unchallenged. Such tests are already impossible in most of Asia, Europe, and the eastern United States, where only fragments of natural terrestrial ecosystems remain. I suspect our large nature reserves and othcxr relatively unmodified areas of t,he giubt still hold the key to many new ccologiral principles. And it may be that only here can the full complexity of natural systcsms ever be worked out, because some procclsscs are visible only at full ecosystem scales. Society can ill afford the further erosion of such areas in either size or diversity until the natural systems of the earth are umlerstood much better than they are today. For if we are to understand the genetic, physiological, and ecological characteristics of organisms, we must have some examples of the ecosystems in which they evolved. In the end such understanding may he no less than the key to human survival. — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 494

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrasts the maturing-ecosystem diversity/stability concept against evidence from real disturbance-driven systems, feeding the nature-interpretation pedagogy thread.
• XREF: Speaks to this course’s outdoor-classroom rationale for reading landscape at Osprey Wilds, and to wilderness-preservation arguments behind the BWCA Wilderness Act. — connects to: Ecological rules asserting themselves across scale reveal hidden order uniting all living systems — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 358

Broader Connections

• Ecological rules asserting themselves across scale reveal hidden order uniting all living systems #corroborates (0.75) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 358