Thanks for response (I'm trying to be provocative, of cource): Yes, in order to understand what a system (in our case parts of or an entire ecosystem) is doing, we need to know about its components. This is even more important if we want to repair a broken system. But, and this is where the stamp collection comes in, we do not, actually, need to know the names (fictional as they are) of the components - we need to know their roles. But it is, of cource, practical to use the same terms (names) for the same things, so, yes, I feel we need taxonomy, but I also feel modern (just as old fashioned) taxonomy needs to se itself as part of understanding the processes the components are parts of, rather than just as being components. Succession and evolution has shown that no ecosystem "recovers" to exactly the state it was before, so in order to predict possible future outcome-possibilities in successional dynamics, we must know what the various players might do, under various (and changing) scenarios.
All the best,
Erik |
