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"I thought it was interesting that Cardinale went back to the concept of valuation. He suggests that valuation may be used to shape policy about biodiversity. However, he emphasizes that in order to attribute a value to biodiversity conservation/loss, we must first figure out how to connect ecosystem functions and services. In other words, the integration of BEF and BES research is a vital aspect of the cause. I find it especially interesting that these two branches of research have yet to converge successfully. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself , but don't they kind of seem to be inherently interrelated? In grammarian terms, it almost seems like BEF is the agent and BES is the patient. Anyway, I agree with you -- I definitely sensed that urgency in his writing. And speaking of Cardinale's writing, I found it to be much more readable the previous two papers. He presents his information in a very straightforward way. I also appreciated the abundance of diagrams and tables and graphs."
--( posted on Sep 30, 2013, commenting on the post Biodiversity Loss and Its Impact on Human Activity )
 
"I understand where you're coming from. I'd never really considered the implications of a trophic cascade within any given ecosystem prior to reading the Silliman article. Like you, I was more concerned with the physical and chemical factors that affect ecosystem productivity. The process of eutrophication is particularly prominent in my mind. However, in retrospect, it makes sense that top-down forces contribute to productivity as well. I like to imagine it as something of a domino effect -- though I'm not sure it's quite so difficult or precarious. Of course there has to be a certain degree of adaptability, but at the same time it's also important to maintain equilibrium. Constancy is key, as exemplified by the experimental marshes in Georgia. To interfere with certain aspects of the food webs (be it the predation, the production, the consumption, or even the decomposition) is to set the ecosystem on the fast track towards destruction. This is why some of Silliman and Bertness's marshes turned into mudflats. They adjusted density of the snails (or rather, the grazers) and controlled predation -- thus "denuding the marsh substrate.""
--( posted on Sep 26, 2013, commenting on the post A New Approach )