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A MODEL FOR SUCCESSFUL ECONOMICS
Probably the easiest way to
understand that plant and animal communities can be used as
a direct model for the development of human communities, is
to say, for eg, in modern society the capitalist economic
system can't seem to get people out of poverty. We don't
seem to know how to develop in a way that will be successful
for everybody. But in ecology we have the model that
will allow us, more or less, to develop a community in the
appropriate way. So I will now explain how a plant and
animal community develops from bare ground up to a forest,
and then I will explain ecological development in a human
community sense.
Plant and Animal Community
Development
When an area of land
starts off at bare ground so that it is barren of any
life, the first species in will be the pioneer or
coloniser species. These species will colonise
the site early on. They will start to change the
characteristics of the site, modifying the environment and
preparing it for later successional species to come in. The
early characteristics and life processes will be more
concerned with quantity rather than quality.
They will just be establishing the early living processes.
The early energy and materials will be from off the site.
They will be open processes from beyond the
immediate area. The early species into the community will
have a broad niche breadth in that they will
be able to perform many functions, etc.
As time goes on and more
and more species come to inhabit the site and the plant and
animal community develops more and more as it heads towards
its climax, it is still progressing in its development. The
niche breadth of the species will narrow,
meaning that they will become more and more specialist in
their functions. The material cycles will tighten and more
and more local energy flows and material
cycles and transfers will occur/happen. And as they
close and tighten the plant and animal community establishes
more and more of an integrity. A stability. And more and
more diversity which will help this integrity and stability.
Later community stages will be more and more concerned
with quality rather than quantity.
As it approaches maturity
in terms of its development it does not continue growing
forever but it grows to the extent that the area starts off
with no living processes. As time goes on, more and more
processes occur. As it reaches maturity there is what I call
a test point and then the community matures,
for example, as a forest.
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