How valid are the biological and ecological principles underpinning Global Change science?

Abstract

The prevailing scientific approach to investigating and understanding the environmental consequences of human-induced global change is underpinned by two basic biological principles. First, the principle that species genetically adapt to changing environment conditions. Second, the principle that nutrients present in the environment in the smallest relative concentrations limit biological productivity. We contend that both principles have been formulated based on the results of investigations into either artificially selected organisms, or anthropogenically perturbed landscapes. In both these cases, organisms are studied outside their natural ecological niche. We argue that natural ecosystems do not conform to the above two principles. Non-perturbed biota of natural ecological communities form and maintain optimal environment conditions by buffering the flux of primary environmental resources that would otherwise randomly fluctuate as the result of purely physical processes. In such a biotically-mediated environment the availability of nutrients does not limit biological productivity. Critically, the capacity of the biota to regulate local environment conditions obviates the need for species to continually adapt to random environmental fluctuations. We illustrate how the failure to distinguish between the functioning of perturbed and unperturbed biota prevents the development of policies and strategies that will lead to the long term resolution of the global ecological crisis.