“Natural” or “Healthy” Ecosystems: Are U.S. National Parks Providing Them?
Document Type
Contribution to Book
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Humans as Components of Ecosystem: Human Effects and the Ecology of Populated Areas
Editor
M.J. McDonnell and S.T.A. Pickett
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Publication Date
1993
First Page
257
Last Page
270
Abstract
Ecosystem ecologists are now generally agreed on the desirability of having areas of natural biota minimally disturbed by technological societies to serve as reference points for understanding the structure and function of ecological systems. Systems of course exist along a continuum from little or no human disturbance to complete anthropogenic alteration (cf. McDonnell et al. Chapter 15 this volume). An in-depth understanding of how they respond to different intensities of human perturbation what constitutes ecosystem sustainability and how profoundly altered systems can be restored is facilitated by a knowledge of structure and function along the entire continuum.
Recommended Citation
Wagner, Frederic H. and Kay, Charles E., "“Natural” or “Healthy” Ecosystems: Are U.S. National Parks Providing Them?" (1993). Wildland Resources Faculty Publications. Paper 1564.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wild_facpub/1564
