The Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Debate in Ecology

Abstract

This chapter begins with a historical review of shifts in the debate over diversity and stability, emphasizing how shifts in the definition of stability affected the course of the debate, and how one can wound up with the present emphasis on measures of ecosystem function and groups of organisms occupying certain roles in the ecosystem, rather than populations of species and their variation. Another theme is the tension between ecological policy making and the pure science of ecology. This tension has led some ecologists to claim that others (and even an association newsletter) are spinning the evidence for diversity-stability links to support certain political policies on the environment. Further, the chapter explores the connection between work on ecosystem functions and teleological ideas generally associated with holistic, Clementsian views of plant ecology and presents a brief review of ideas about functions in biology, identifying the tendency of ecological holists to appeal to functions in a broader way than reductionists. Finally, it emphasizes the intimate links between ecology and the challenges of policy making. These links lead to a strong emphasis on a human-centered, utilitarian notion of “ecosystem function,” exemplified by work on ecosystem services and their value to human beings (and economies).