[PDF] Advanced Ecological Theory Principles and Applications by Jacqueline McGlade

Advanced Ecological Theory Principles and Applications by Jacqueline McGlade :: Anticipating change in the planetary system and especially the biosphere has become a modern preoccupation.The need to know, and to know instantaneously, what is happening to different ecosystems across the globe has brought ecologists out from the corners of research departments into the limelight. Mass-media and the culture of open access to information has exposed environmental issues to far higher levels of scrutiny than even the most progressively minded activist could ever have dreamed of. Saving endangered species and protecting the environment has now become a national pastime in many countries and of significant global institutional concern. But simple ‘knee-jerk’ reactions to change will not be enough to mitigate against any long-term ecological damage. There has to be a concerted effort to understand how ecosystems function under conditions that have yet to be experienced—we can only run the planetary experiment once—and for this a solid theoretical foundation is needed.