entomologist, ecologist and conservation biologist Paul R. Ehrlich has been awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2013 in the category of Ecology and Conservation Biology for his “fundamental contributions” to the sector, including “highly innovative co-evolution as” concepts .
This theory determines the interactions that take place between different types of organisms without it being genetic exchange, have contributed to the great diversity of species of plants and insects. “Professor Ehrlich advanced the seminal idea that the interactions of plants and herbivores shape the evolutionary history of the species as an engine for the generation of diversity” says the jury.
is considered one of the most influential works in the field of evolutionary ecology and has inspired in recent decades dozens of books and thousands of studies. When this study was conducted in 1964, the weight of the ecological phenomenon of ‘co-evolution’ is not suspected.
explained that this award-winning work, signing with Peter H. Raven was carried out with “a growing excitement,” because he and his colleague suspected that the ‘co-evolution’ was, in general, “an underrated process.” “I think our work has been so widely quoted that first analyzed in depth the evolutionary relationships between two groups of evolutionarily closely related organisms,” he said.
search for the origin of biodiversity in the ‘co-evolution’ was part of a much wider research, for which Ehrlich mounted in the sixties in the ecological reserve of Stanford University. Some experimental facilities that are operated and have helped develop one of the ecological studies of longer duration in the world.
explains the record, Ehrlich “resorted to experimental studies to document long-term patterns in the population dynamics and genetic structure and the factors that regulate them.” “Through his work with butterflies as studio system, managed to unravel the role of climate and ecological interactions in regulating populations. This study opened a new horizon in the investigation of metapopulation dynamics and probability of extinction as a result of the balance between colonization and extinction “, it added.
And, the ‘co-evolution’ has not been his only significant achievement. The jury also highlights other studies of Ehrlich emerged concepts such as the aforementioned ‘metapopulation dynamics’ or ‘ecosystem services’.
has also been a pioneer in quantifying the impact of human activity on nature, and the development of the concept of ecological sustainability. One of his most cited papers published in the journal BioScience ‘in 1986, examines how first primary production consumed by humans.
Primary production is the biomass generated by photosynthetic organisms, the only power able to enter the cycle of life on Earth by converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic matter. Analysis of Ehrlich and collaborators found that humans consume nearly 40 percent of this resource.
“Their work revealed the surprisingly high proportion of net primary productivity used by humans and the destruction or use of freshwater supplies,” say the experts.
In this sense, the secretary of the jury, Pedro Jordano, has emerged as one of his most recent conceptual contributions to a 2011 article in which Ecology advocates against intervention Restoration ecology: ” Instead of focusing on recovering a particular species, it is to understand and act on the interaction processes that maintain species and ecological functions essential to preserve the ecosystem “.
Meanwhile
Ehrlich explains it as, “In general, acting on an ecosystem, humans would have to decide what we want to return earlier time rather than ask recreate a pristine state.” He advocates first define what ecosystem services are sought for, from there, decide the intervention.
ep
No comments:
Post a Comment