ecological restoration

Biologists refer to organisms purposely grown in the lab as “cultures.” To culture bacteria or fungi in a laboratory setting requires that they be provided with appropriate physical and chemical conditions. A petri dish with agar and nutrients, held under a specific light and temperature regime, allows one to culture a particular species of bacteria. “Cultured ecologies,” by analogy, are systems where ecological communities, rather than single species, are purpose grown. Cultured ecologies make use of the self-organizing properties of ecological systems. Given a set of physical conditions, and a suite of potential colonizing species, an ecology appropriate to those conditions will develop. Mitsch (1993) describes the “self-design” or “self-organization” of constructed wetlands: “Ecological engineers participate in ecosystem design by providing choices of initial species as well as starting conditions; nature does the rest.”  Many designers of contained ecologically engineered systems have given them proprietary, trademarked names. John Todd, a pioneer in the development of complex cultured ecologies, has used both “Solar Aquatics” and “Living Machines” as trademarked names for his systems (Todd subsequently lost control of both trademarks. Today he uses the term “Eco-machines.”) Adey (1995) proposed the term “controlled ecosystems.” Egan (2002) used the term “cultured ecosystems,” based on an analogy with the cultured pearl industry, to describe certain ecological restoration efforts, to a somewhat different end than is intended here. MacMahon (1998, 2001) offered the term “designer ecosystems” for those systems developed to meet specific human purposes–from constructed wetlands to forest communities—for communities that may not generally exist together in nature but may desirable to support a conservation goal.  [click to continue…]

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