Something must be done

September 20, 2011

1. Something must be done 2. This is something. 3. Therefore, this must be done. I love syllogisms, tight little nuggets of logical thinking, and one reason we do dumb things, especially when we are under stress. This one comes from Megan McCardle who attributes it to Bryan Caplan.

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Do species matter?

August 31, 2010

The announcement last week from that they have found new taxa of bacteria at work in the Gulf of Mexico breaking down oil released from the BP spill brings up once again the whole debate about the role of species in ecosystems, and hence in ecosystem design. Ecologists from the systems ecology tradition, broadly speaking, [...]

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Prospects for a Detritus Agriculture

May 23, 2010

There is no reason why man cannot make greater use of detritus and thus obtain food or other products from the more protective type of ecosystem. Again, this would represent a compromise, since the short-term yield would not be as great as the yield obtained by direct exploitation of the grazing food chain. A detritus [...]

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Iron algae fall to the copepods

March 28, 2009

The controversial LOHAFEX experiment to seed the ocean near Antarctica with iron has produced interesting, unexpected results. The theory was that iron would act as fertilizer and stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. The growing phytoplankton would absorb CO2 and then die, taking the carbon to the sea bottom. The iron did stimulate a plankton bloom, at [...]

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“The era of the master architect is dead”

February 26, 2009

Also dead, master engineers, master ecologists, master landscape architects. Back in the 90s there was all this buzz about collaboration – but it was really more like cooperation. But now there are more and more competitions and RFPs that are requiring multidisciplinary teams. The era of the master-architect is dead. There’s an increasing awareness of [...]

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Algal ecological design inspiration

January 28, 2009

Reading the chapter on “Southern Plains Rivers” in the fine book Rivers of North America (2005, Academic Press) I came across this observation from W.J. Matthews: in autumn of some years, major portions of the streambed [of the Canadian River in Oklahoma] can become encrusted with a thick layer of algae that appears to be [...]

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