Comments on: Hidden Ecological Functions and Ecological Hysteresis http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/01/12/hidden-ecological-functions-and-ecological-hysteresis/ coping with ecological surprise in a human dominated world Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:54:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: jebyrnes http://rs.resalliance.org/2007/01/12/hidden-ecological-functions-and-ecological-hysteresis/comment-page-1/#comment-1183 jebyrnes Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:00:03 +0000 http://blog.resalliance.org/?p=303#comment-1183 Interesting piece. I'd argue that while the piece shows that an inverebrate feeder may in some cases be more important than some herbivores in the system (a key habitat engineer, as it were), that rather than arguing against management for diversity, if anything, it shows that diversity can be of key importance as it is important to maintain <i>all</i> functional guilds. Who knows what hidden direct or indirect intereactions may be due to the actions of one particular guild or species. I think Bellwood said it best in the Post piece. "This study shows that fishes can have unexpected roles...Just because we don't know their roles at the moment doesn't mean it is safe to remove them." Interesting piece. I’d argue that while the piece shows that an inverebrate feeder may in some cases be more important than some herbivores in the system (a key habitat engineer, as it were), that rather than arguing against management for diversity, if anything, it shows that diversity can be of key importance as it is important to maintain all functional guilds. Who knows what hidden direct or indirect intereactions may be due to the actions of one particular guild or species.

I think Bellwood said it best in the Post piece.

“This study shows that fishes can have unexpected roles…Just because we don’t know their roles at the moment doesn’t mean it is safe to remove them.”

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