WHAT LAWMAKERS CAN LEARN FROM LARGE- SCALE ECOLOGY FRED BOSSELMAN* Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION: SCALE IN ECOLOGY .................. 207 A. Geographic Scale ............................ 208 B. Temporal Scale .............................. 214 C. A Greater Vision ............................. 219 II. PREMISES OF LARGE-SCALE ECOLOGY ............... 221 A. Ecosystems are Human-Generated Concepts ....... 222 B. Natural Areas Contain Internal Mechanisms for Change ................................. 228 C. Ecological Processes are as Important as Ecological Patterns ........................... 231 III. LEARNING FROM LARGE-SCALE PROCESSES ........... 236 A. Competition Doesn’t Always Cause Extinction ..... 236 B. Fragmentation Doesn’t Always Reduce Diversity ... 240 C. Disturbance of Ecological Systems Doesn’t Always Mean Destruction ..................... 252 D. Metastability May Exist Without Equilibrium ..... 272 IV. PROPOSALS FOR LAWMAKERS ...................... 294 A. Use Better Ecological Data in Implementing Laws . 294 B. Focus on Post-Disturbance Reorganization ........ 309 C. Counteract Unidirectional Environmental Change . 318 V. CONCLUSION .................................. 325 I. INTRODUCTION: SCALE IN ECOLOGY In the science of ecology, “scale” refers to both space and time. Today, ecological scientists have dramatically expanded their ability to study the natural world in large quantities, both spatially and temporally.1 The results of this research should lead us to * Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law. A shorter version of this article was presented as a lecture at The Florida State University College of Law, and the article has benefitted from the comments received from those in attendance and from my esteemed colleague, Dan Tarlock. The research has been supported by a grant from the Marshall Ewell Research Fund. This article is dedicated to May Thielgaard Watts. 1. For a summary of the way the term “scale” is used in ecology, see MONICA G. TURNER ET AL., LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY IN THEORY AND PRACTICE 25-30 (2001). The work of ecologists has been done in combination with specialists in many other fields that emphasize large scale analysis. See, e.g., NAT’L ASSESSMENT SYNTHESIS TEAM, U.S. GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PROGRAM, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON THE UNITED STATES 76-80 (2001) (discussing biochemistry and biogeography models used to consider ecological impact of 207 208 J. LAND USE & ENVTL. L. [Vol. 17:2 question some of the old theories implanted in popular ideas about ecology and to explore new ideas that raise new concerns about the ways in which humans are affecting nature. A. Geographic Scale Advances in the technology of information gathering and processing have enabled ecological scientists to study the natural world on a larger scale than ever before. Where ecologists were once limited to studying an individual bog or a hilltop, they can now study entire regions or continents.2 1. Remote Sensing Data from satellite observations has become increasingly sophisticated and widely available,3 enabling ecologists to map the characteristics of areas for which field data is sparse,4 and offering new opportunities to develop techniques for mapping species’ range5 and classifying ecological systems.6 Today’s satellite maps cover the globe, revealing the distribution of types of ecological systems at increasingly higher resolutions.7 climate change). 2. “Treating each ecosystem individually, as we now do, loses track of important processes and fluxes that occur at the interfaces. Because ecosystems often occur as a patchwork on the landscape, outputs from one system are almost always inputs to another. Only by treating the entire landscape as a system can all of the important system properties be evaluated.” Stephen L. Rawlins, Institutional Capacity to Monitor the Sources and Effects of Environmental Change in Agriculture, in AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT, AND HEALTH: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY 261, 276-77 (Vernon W. Ruttan ed., 1994). 3. KRISTIINA A. VOGT ET AL. EDS., ECOSYSTEMS: BALANCING SCIENCE WITH MANAGEMENT 220-23 (1997). The new and projected advances in remote sensing technology using satellites are concisely summarized in NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS FOR THE NATION 34-41 (2000). See generally JOHN R. SCHOTT, REMOTE SENSING: THE IMAGE CHAIN APPROACH (1996); PETER A. BURROUGH & RACHAEL A. MCDONNELL, PRINCIPLES OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS (2d ed., 1998); Woody Turner et al., Special Section: Contributions of Remote Sensing to Biodiversity Conservation: A NASA Approach, 15 CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 832 (2001). For visual examples, visit NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, GSFC on-line News Releases available at http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/ earth/imaging/landsat.htm (last visited Mar. 7, 2002). 4. See, e.g., Giles M. Foody et al., Mapping the Biomass of Bornean Tropical Rain Forest from Remotely Sensed Data, 10 GLOBAL ECOLOGY & BIOGEOGRAPHY 379 (2001). See generally, MAPPING THE DIVERSITY OF NATURE (Ronald I. Miller ed., 1994). 5. Bruce A. Stein & Frank W. Davis, Discovering Life in America: Tools and Techniques of Biodiversity Inventory, in PRECIOUS HERITAGE: THE STATUS OF BIODIVERSITY IN THE UNITED STATES 19, 21-23 (Bruce A. Stein et al. eds., 2000). 6. R.S. Defries & J.R.G. Townshend, Global Land Cover Characterization from Satellite Data: From Research to Operational Implementation?, 8 GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY 367 (1999). 7. NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, GRAND CHALLENGES IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 25 (2001). The history of the use of remote sensing satellites is summarized in Charles Davies et al., Moving Pictures: How Satellites, the Internet, and International Environmental Law Spring, 2002] WHAT LAWMAKERS CAN LEARN 209 Satellite maps provide visual, radar, and infrared images of the land, water, atmosphere, and geophysical images of the shallow subsurface.8 The current generation of school children are being taught to use geographic information systems in elementary and high schools.9 Ecologists are also able to use new technologies to follow the flow of matter and organisms through ecological systems.10 For example, recent studies have shown for the first time the migration habits of tuna in the Atlantic Ocean,11 the extent of regrowth of previously cut tropical forest in Amazonia,12 and increases of woody vegetation in parts of West Africa that were thought to be experiencing desertification.13 2. Access to Remote Places A variety of technologies have increased scientists’ abilities to obtain ecological data from places that were until recently inaccessible.14 “Deep-sea sampling routinely produces cores from both medium and abyssal depths using remotely controlled can help Promote Sustainable Development, 28 Stetson L. Rev. 1091 (1999). 8. NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, supra note 7, at 33 (2001). For a review of the uses of remote sensing in the analysis of underground conditions, see generally NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, SEEING INTO THE EARTH: NONINVASIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SHALLOW SUBSURFACE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS (2000). 9. RICHARD AUDET & GAIL LUDWIG, GIS IN SCHOOLS 5-12 (2000). 10. Global positioning systems operate through transponders attached to objects moving on the earth’s surface that report their data to satellites. Davies et al., supra note 7, at 1120. 11. See, e.g., John J. Magnuson et al., Whose Fish are they Anyway?, 293 SCI. 1267 (2001) (describing use of two new kinds of electronic tags used to track the movement of tuna throughout the Atlantic Ocean). 12. D.S. Alves & D.L. Skole, Characterizing Land Cover Dynamics Using Multi-Temporal Imagery, 17 INT’L J. OF REMOTE SENSING 835 (1996) (stating as much as 31% of formerly cut forest is in various stages of regrowth). For other examples of the use of remote sensing in the analysis of deforestation, see Jaboury Ghazoul & Julian Evans, Deforestation and Land Clearing, in 2 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIODIVERSITY 23, 26 (Simon Asher Levin ed., 2001). 13. Thomas J. Bassett & Koli Bi Zuéli, Environmental Discources and the Ivorian Savanna, 90 ANNALS OF THE ASS’N OF AM. GEOGRAPHERS 67, 70-71 (2000). “Close inspection by the research community has begun to illuminate the nuances of land-cover dynamics and to challenge the conventional wisdom on a number of fronts.” NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, supra note 7, at 50. For a discussion of some of the limitations of classifying vegetation zones from satellite data, see VEGETATION MAPPING FROM PATCH TO PLANET 321-28 (Roy Alexander & Andrew C. Millington eds., 2000). 14. Today’s field biologist is likely to be carrying a laptop, cell phone, global positioning system, range finder and digital camera. Stein & Davis, supra note 5, at 21. 210 J. LAND USE & ENVTL. L. [Vol. 17:2 submersibles.”15 Genetic16 and isotopic tracers17 are increasingly being used to follow ecological processes in formerly inaccessible situations.18 For example, the feeding patterns of wide-ranging raptors can now be better analyzed through the use of stable nitrogen isotope analyses of raptor pellets that indicate not only the nature of the raptor’s prey but the kind of areas in which the prey were found.19 When these techniques are combined with satellite sensing and advanced systems for analyzing geographic information, they make it possible to identify key areas of ecological importance that humans may never have visited.20 For example, a recent study that compared satellite data with ground-based sampling in remote parts of the Canadian arctic made it possible to map the diversity