Part 5 • Practical Consider ati 



CHAPTER XII 



APPLIED ECOLOGY 



Man is rapidly becoming the earth's dominant organism. To an 

 increasing extent, natural communities survive because he tolerates 

 them, are modified to suit his purposes or fancy, or are destroyed, 

 sometimes through his carelessness, but usually so that land may 

 be used for agriculture, industry, or other activities. His domi- 

 nance is of a different order from that characteristic of com- 

 munities in nature, for, with his knowledge and technology, his 

 activities are often so extreme and so rapid that their effects are 

 like those of a series of catastrophic natural events. Thus he may 

 not only destroy or modify natural communities, but he may also 

 frequently modify the environment to a great extent. Suggestive 

 of a different form of environmental modification are the recent 

 experiments with rain-making by the use of dry ice. All this is 

 necessary from our modern point of view and will continue, per- 

 haps at an accelerated rate, as populations increase and the earth 

 is more completely occupied and used. 



Natural communities and their environments, particularly the 

 soil, are natural resources. When they are destroyed or modified, 

 they may reappear only after a Jong period of time or, with ex- 

 treme disturbance, this may even be impossible. It becomes in- 

 creasingly apparent that future generations may require these 

 natural resources and likewise that man has been most wasteful of 

 them, especially in modern times. A problem today, which will 

 become greater in the future, is that of how to use such natural 



D 



resources to the fullest extent without jeopardizing their con- 

 tinued availability for future needs. The problem is fundamentally 

 ecological. Its solution depends upon the comprehension and ap- 

 plication of ecological principles. 



315 



