System-analytic conceptual framework for community paleoecology
Abstract
Analiza systemów a paleosynekologia
A conceptual framework derived from the general system theory is here applied to community paleoecology. Six distinct categories of community development through time are defined in terms of system regulation, adaptation, and loss of structural identity. Three of these (ecological stability, ecological resilience, and community replacement) deal with ecological time. Three others (community permanence, community evolution, and community reorganization) deal with evolutionary time. When considering evolutionary time, one deals however not as much with single communities as with community types which term is here meant as a group of communities resembling each other very closely in their taxonomic composition and ecological structure, and limited by the same environmental factors. Some actual examples of community development through evolutionary time are interpreted in the system-analytic terms.
A conceptual framework derived from the general system theory is here applied to community paleoecology. Six distinct categories of community development through time are defined in terms of system regulation, adaptation, and loss of structural identity. Three of these (ecological stability, ecological resilience, and community replacement) deal with ecological time. Three others (community permanence, community evolution, and community reorganization) deal with evolutionary time. When considering evolutionary time, one deals however not as much with single communities as with community types which term is here meant as a group of communities resembling each other very closely in their taxonomic composition and ecological structure, and limited by the same environmental factors. Some actual examples of community development through evolutionary time are interpreted in the system-analytic terms.