Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/107

People and Resource Use Conflicts

10 PEOPLE AND RESOURCE-USE CONFLICT

• Animal Populations and Ecosystems
• Resource Cycles and People
• The Ecological Problem of Modern Society
• Resource Use Conflicts
• Is There an Easy Solution

10.1 ANIMAL POPULATIONS AND ECOSYSTEMS

The population of any animal species depends upon the ability of the ecosystem of which it is a part to support it. It is not only the total amount of biomass that counts in the support of a particular animal species, but also the quality of that particular part of the biomass that is relevant to the animal. For example, on Eco Island, the total number of Aphid Eaters depends on the amount of Aphids. The Aphid Eater can only eat Aphids: it cannot eat the leaves of the Eco Tree (Chapter 2.)

Moreover, the relationship of an animal species with its ecosystem is dynamic. The species is not just a passive occupant of an ecosystem: it influences the ecosystem and changes it for its own survival. Termites are a wonderful example: they build complex shelters in which they store detritus for the culture of fungi upon which they feed; in the process they turn over large quantities of soil, fundamentally influencing their ecosystem and many of the other species that live in it.

Animal species can change ecosystems to suit them, but in the end they remain subject to the fact that biomass is limited, and to the fact that they must compete with other animal species for use of the biomass. The total amount of biomass is fixed ultimately by those elements that make up the bulk of living matter (such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen), and the elements that are micro-nutrients but nonetheless essential to life, such as iron. People are no exception, although in the evolutionary battlefield we have gained a dominant position by developing the technology to exploit the entire biosphere to the extent that, for the time being, we seem able to defy ecological laws.

10.2 RESOURCE CYCLES AND PEOPLE

All species exploit the resources of ecosystems in order to survive. A resource, as we shall discuss later, may be a complex material, such as soil, timber or oil, or the atomic or molecular components of these materials, such as nitrogen, or Water.

Atom: the smallest particle of an element, made up of an electrically positive core and associated negative electrons. The electronic nature of an atom—its ability to attract or repel other atoms—define its physical and chemical properties and may mean that it cannot naturally exist on its own but must be joined to other atoms.

Elements: the most simple substances, composed of identical atoms that have the same chemical properties. They may be found as collections of single atoms, but

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