Novel Ecosystems

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Richard J Hobbs, Eric S Higgs and Carol M Hall (eds). 2013. Novel Ecosystems – Intervening in the new ecological world order. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 1183 5422 3

It’s not every day that you get to see a new perspective in a subject but this text might well be one such case. The central argument is that since we can’t “win” in some areas because invasive species have taken over then we might as well learn to accommodate the new ones and see how much we can “safe” of the old. It suggests a Brave New World of strange combinations that might create new landscapes with a new set of “winners” and “losers” in ecosystem development. Of course, we’ve always seen this in such concepts as succession and, to a lesser extent, zonation (or even global climate change) and yet we see these as “natural” and other ecosystems as not. The aim of the 42 contributions mentioned here is to counter that perspective.

If you are going to open a new field of study a forthright statement of what it does is a good start. The first chapter is a call for a new way of thinking. We are told that it is not anti-conservation or pro-novelty (defined here as new organisms in an existing ecosystem creating significant change). Although these, and other, arguments are developed here it becomes clear that the focus of the thesis is one of cost-effectiveness – that there are places worth keeping pristine, some you need to just restore the best you can and others where you can never eradicate invasives but can see how the area can be developed and managed. There’s merit in this because for too long conservation has been far less challenged about the cost-benefit of its spending than might usefully be the case. From here, the text focusses on a series of key points with each part a set of brief chapters.

The first set looks at the concept of ‘novel’ and subjects it to scrutiny. We start with an obvious case to highlight the features that would get it classified as novel. This is complemented by a chapter examining islands – classic areas where change and invasion are common. This sets the scene by showing us examples. Another pair of chapters looks at the concept from a theoretical perspective – a question of how we can model such ecosystems and what it means to manage them. One particular diagram is telling in this respect. Showing the three ecosystem ‘types’ of historical, hybrid and novel it is clear that in the former two, management aims to move towards the original pristine state, whereas for novel the aim is merely to attempt to recreate a similar state to the original accepting that there are new species in it. The other ‘pair’ of the chapters takes the argument back to earlier times to show how it develops from some of the earliest ecological thinking of Tansley and Gleeson.

Now the reader has a grasp of the main concepts, the work moves towards an understanding of the novel ecosystem knowledge and the limitations thereof. A common theme is that novel ecosystems are not new. Leaving aside issues of logic, the central tenet is that we have seen widespread change since the planet was formed and what we have here is merely the latest manifestation (albeit from anthropogenic causes). A global-scale study of marine and terrestrial ecosystems demonstrates the validity of this assertion with coral reefs and farmlands being used to illustrate the case. A much smaller case occupies the next contribution where Puerto Rican forests are mapped for their novel associations. Of course, not all changes are purely geographical. As we see in the next chapter, climate change create temporal ecosystem changes as species shift their traditional geographical ranges. From this point on, we see a number of cases where additional species have altered ecosystems. There are the obvious cases like invasive species but less obvious ones like infectious disease. To round off this part, we have a case study of an area in Colorado which highlights the changes that can occur.

Up to this point, we have a consideration of what novel ecosystems might be and what we might know about them. As such, this gives us a set of parameters with which to classify ecosystems and some theoretical justification for doing so. Now, we move on to restoration. At the outset we were told that novel ecosystems could not be turned around to the original state but could be given some form of management to create a reasonable proxy. Now we are told that restoration might be a cost-effective option. What can we do and how successful might we be? The opening chapter makes it clear that change will occur and therefore we need to see how much and at what rate of change we can intervene. Having accepted that we move on to practical considerations. First, we need to make our conservation plans so that novel systems are just part of the overall system. From this point, we need to consider the practical issues that might make, or mar, management. Several examples follow from the issues of finding a baseline state from which to measure change, to drivers forcing  change beyond those limits expected, to stakeholder influence and designer ecosystems. Although these cases are different, a consistent message appears – novel ecosystems may have no more complexity than ‘natural’ ones but the amplitudes of change make a dynamic, flexible plan more necessary. If this were not enough to contend with, we are told of the difficulties to be found in accurate measuring of novelty. A final flourish discusses the Seychelles where novel ecosystem management is in place alongside more traditional forms of conservation.

From a large section of the text looking at the issues surrounding restoration and conservation the reader is moved onto a small bust fascinating aspect – valuing novel systems. A small narrative opens this part with childhood stories of an “old” woodland being a playground but also what we might call a degraded landscape, a ‘new’ and novel ecosystem. There’s a sense that we should value them for their ecosystem, but perhaps not too much, because, after all, they are not completely natural! It’s this fascinating contradiction that fills the examples here. How do we get people engaging with such areas (especially in nations where conservation is a strong volunteer activity and where the novel is routinely weeded out)?  When we are making conservations laws and policy, how do we encompass the new? Three studies close to home – Welsh restoration, Canberra’s lake and Scottish mines add a practical side to the debate.

Having debated a wide range of issues about novel ecosystems, the book looks towards the future, asking what can be done  about these ecosystems. There’s the question of invasive species, still, and how we deal with them whilst still valuing novel ecosystems. In fact, can we get people to value such systems (although change might be so rapid that it becomes a non-question)?  We also need to consider what ecosystems services novel systems might have and the extent to which this equals a more ‘natural’ system. To this we must think about the ways in which we might manage conservation.

This is a fascinating book to read and think about. It challenges  us to consider (possibly deliberately), or more properly, re-consider all that we have been told about conservation ecology. Invasives are not injected into a scene, they are the scene! We cannot undo the changes to meet some pristine past, partly because it is not feasible but mainly because we would be unable to pinpoint exactly what ‘pristine’ means in this context! The book forces us to challenge our assumptions to see if there is not a better way to achieve our objectives. Instead of the dichotomy between  ‘wilderness’ and anthopogenic landscape we have a three-fold notion by adding the novel (but fully functioning) ecosystem. Overall this is a very valuable addition to the conservation debate. It opens up a new line of thinking. It brings closer together ideas of conservation and restoration. The idea of numerous, small chapters adds to the book rather than detracts because it forces the contributors to focus on the important and essential and leave out the ideas which might add to the debate for a specialist, often detract for the generalist. One of the most stimulating texts so far this year, it deserves the widest readership.