Can ecosystems ‘malfunction’?: The Guardian update
We are told the natural world is ‘breaking down’. But forests don’t work like aeroplanes or human hearts A version of this piece was originally
We are told the natural world is ‘breaking down’. But forests don’t work like aeroplanes or human hearts A version of this piece was originally published on Aeon as Why we need to think again about ecosystem failure The Amazon rainforest, according to a 2021 study, is losing its capacity as a carbon sink and now emits more than it absorbs.
In the tropics, marine scientists are reporting that coral reefs are in decline, threatening fish stocks. Equally concerning is research into the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc), a vast system of ocean currents that helps regulate the climate and is at risk of collapsing this century. The entire global ecosystem appears to be losing its ability to function.
We find this view in newspapers, magazines, technical reports and the journals of learned societies. But thinking about the environment in terms of its functions is also how many of us tend to understand the world. We may think that forests exist to produce oxygen, wetlands to filter water and bees to pollinate our crops. Of special interest to humanity is the relationship of biodiversity to the variety of services provided by ecosystems and, in particular, to the stability of the flow of those services, such as the maintenance of the gaseous composition of the atmosphere, preservation of soils, recycling of nutrients and provision of food from the sea.
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