Question
1. Sprugel (1991) describes four ways in which ecosystems can be at non-equilibrium
conditions, and identifies four ecological implications of these findings. What are the key messages that natural resource managers should learn from this paper? Be specific in terms of identifying actions or policies that should be adopted or modified. Feel free to focus on a particular management area (e.g., water resources, forestry, parks & protected areas, etc.).
3. Describe several ways in which paleoenvironmental techniques have contributed to our understanding of biogeographic processes (in particular those we have discussed in this course).
4. Given the considerable uncertainty regarding future climatic change, what can be stated confidently regarding the future distributions of plants and animals? What are the critical areas of uncertainty?
My thought to these questions:
For question 2,in Sprugel he defines 3 ways in which ecosystems can be at non-equilibrium, followed by 4 real life examples. They are: non equilibrium due to spatial scale of disturbances, Non-equilibrium due to unique events in the past and Non-equilibrium due to climatic variability. I am pretty sure these three ways are right. But the first question asks for 4 ways in which ecosystems can be at non-equilibrium.