ARCHIVE - Visualizing Ecology - Week 4: Clements and Succession http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/taxonomy/term/12/0 en ARCHIVE - christina weeks - week 4 http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/christina-weeks-week-4 <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">“The essence of succession lies in the interaction of three factors, namely, habitat, life-forms, and species, in the progressive development of a formation. In this development, habitat and population act and react upon each other, alternation as cause and effect until a state of equilibrium is reached.”</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">What fascinates me most about Clements’ idea of succession towards a climax perfect equilibrium of nature is what the mind-set of the time must have been. In 1916 when he published his idea it was widely accepted and it wasn’t until ten years later that an alternative theory of continues succession was accepted. Living in the world today it would be nice and convenient to think that nature is undergoing a slow but certain process toward perfection and equilibrium but, we now have the scientific knowledge that shows otherwise. The mind-set in the time of Clements’ seems to have been very progressive, moving toward perfection, which makes sense seeing it falls right in the time of the industrial revolution when everything really started moving forward. In the same time period of the climax equilibrium idea Hitler had a similar idea. Hitler believed that in order to reach a perfect equilibrium among the human race was to rid it of “imperfect” people such as the mentally retarded, homosexuals, and Jews. Now the way we look at nature seems almost the exact opposite. Especially when considering the effects of global warming nature seems to be a much more of a digressing process rather than progressing one. Nowadays there is a mind set of the earth being destroyed if not by global warming by mass intake of precious recourses such as fresh water and oil. Looking at this contrast shows that as the mind-set of people changes it greatly affects the new ideas and innovations in the scientific community. </font></p> http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter/christina-weeks-week-4#comment Week 4: Clements and Succession Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:13:19 -0800 weechr04 213 at http://www2.evergreen.edu/visecowinter