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Population and Land Use in Developing Countries Report of a Workshop (1993) / Chapter Skim
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4 An Ecological Perspective on Population Change and Land Use
Pages 37-41

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From page 37...
... But in addition to that opportunity, the dominant ecological world view, or paradigm, has predisposed the American discipline to work with apparently closed, self-regulating systems, for which human effects are external or temporary excursions from a biotic equilibrium. Such an approach reflects the long-lived cultural metaphor of the balance of nature.
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From page 38...
... , the key ecosystem processes of nitrogen mineralization and litter decomposition rates actually increase in urban compared to rural sites (Pouyat et al., n.d.~. Ultimately, comparison with other anthropogenic stress and disturbance gradients can expose generalizable and fundamental limits on ecological systems, as well as supply quantitative environmental measurements to evaluate the effects of human population and land use
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From page 39...
... Such a choice would not connect closely with the work of most ecologists, because the quantifiable environmental variables that are so important to predicting and explaining the workings of ecological systems are almost completely ignored by the focus on land use. Ecologists can say how the animal populations are regulated, how the communities are distributed in space and time, and how the nutrients and carbon are partitioned and processed in local forest stands, watersheds, or regional landscapes.
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From page 40...
... This lesson emerges from comparing the fundamental structure of ecological versus economic development models. These two disciplines represent two great paradigms that reflect radically different assumptions about how systems work.
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From page 41...
... The "+" sign indicates positive feedback, whereas the "-" sign indicates negative feedbacks and other external limiting factors. do limits exist or not?
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Key Terms

  • social scientists
  • modern ecology
  • human effects
  • negative feedbacks
  • rural sites

  • population change
  • ecological perspective
  • quantitative environmental
  • sign indicates
  • positive feedback

  • development models
  • human populations
  • american ecology
  • metropolitan region
  • apparently closed

  • basic assumption
  • versus rural
  • basic positive
  • broad chasm
  • york metropolitan

  • specific disciplines
  • ecological world
  • litter decomposition
  • fundamental limits
  • rural gradients

  • disturbance gradients
  • forest stands
  • mark mcdonnell
  • study human
  • impressive body


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