Abstract
How important are individual species in controlling ecosystem properties? Many studies of ecosystem-level dynamics are conducted with little reference to the influences of the individual species within ecosystems. In some cases this dis-regard is explicit, and it is argued that whole-system functional properties are better indicators of ecosystem status than is any aspect of species biology (O’Neill et al. 1977). This point of view has been deplored but not unambiguously disproved (cf. Foin and Jain 1977; Mcintosh 1980).
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Vitousek, P.M. (1986). Biological Invasions and Ecosystem Properties: Can Species Make a Difference?. In: Mooney, H.A., Drake, J.A. (eds) Ecology of Biological Invasions of North America and Hawaii. Ecological Studies, vol 58. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4988-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4988-7_10
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