This second interview with Alberto Basset, Professor of Ecology at the University of Salento and Director of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre in Lecce, Italy, concerns "How biodiversity is organised and maintained". The organisation doesn't vary simply according to the species found in a given system, how many are primary producers, how many are consumers or predators, the space available or the resources on hand; it is related to fundamental drivers on energy availability, disturbance intensity and periodicity, the degree of openness and a few others . If species feed on different resources they can co-exist, but the body size related to resource quantity requirements, and the degree of similarity among species can also have a role in setting the coexistence conditions organising biodiversity in ecosystems. Communities inside an ecosystem are always the product of natural selection and thus are the product of progressive co-adaption and co-evolution - it is the interaction between species that makes those species and those communities stable over time -.
Human activities disrupt that self management. We disturb the balance in ecosystems by consuming too many resources that could be used by other species, and by polluting the system which decreases the quality of life for other species. Responses to our lack of suitable management approaches are seen more quickly in aquatic environments. We could say that aquatic ecosystems are 'fast reacting' because the producers, like algae, are microscopic and can double their density up to ten times in a single day, while terrestrial systems are 'slow reacting' because producers like plants and trees might live for a hundred years. Having said that, the Mediterranean Sea has been disturbed by humans for over 5,000 years but remains one of the biodiversity hotspots on the planet.
This second interview with Alberto Basset, Professor of Ecology at the University of Salento and Director of the LifeWatch ERIC Service Centre in Lecce, Italy, concerns "How biodiversity is organised and maintained". The organisation doesn't vary simply according to the species found in a given system, how many are primary producers, how many are consumers or predators, the space available or the resources on hand; it is related to fundamental drivers on energy availability, disturbance intensity and periodicity, the degree of openness and a few others . If species feed on different resources they can co-exist, but the body size related to resource quantity requirements, and the degree of similarity among species can also have a role in setting the coexistence conditions organising biodiversity in ecosystems. Communities inside an ecosystem are always the product of natural selection and thus are the product of progressive co-adaption and co-evolution - it is the interaction between species that makes those species and those communities stable over time -.
Human activities disrupt that self management. We disturb the balance in ecosystems by consuming too many resources that could be used by other species, and by polluting the system which decreases the quality of life for other species. Responses to our lack of suitable management approaches are seen more quickly in aquatic environments. We could say that aquatic ecosystems are 'fast reacting' because the producers, like algae, are microscopic and can double their density up to ten times in a single day, while terrestrial systems are 'slow reacting' because producers like plants and trees might live for a hundred years. Having said that, the Mediterranean Sea has been disturbed by humans for over 5,000 years but remains one of the biodiversity hotspots on the planet.