How did the concept evolve?
- Tansley developed the concept as a counterpoint to the ideas of Clements
Duncan Golicher
I have already given my reasons for rejecting the terms ‘’complex organism’’ and ‘’biotic community’‘. Clements’ earlier term ‘’biome’’ for the whole complex of organisms inhabiting a given region is unobjectionable, and for some purpose convenient. But the more fundamental conception is, at is seems to me, the whole system (in the sense of physics), including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment of the biome– the habitat factors in the widest sense. Though the organisms may claim our primary interest, when we are trying to think fundamentally we cannot separate them from their special environment, with which they form one physical system. It is the systems so formed which, from the point of view of the ecologist, are the basic units of nature on the face of the earth.
Models derived from engineering lack four key components.
“In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.”
