12 TH BASU; DUB ON] BLU ben aes 
An ecosystem is a unit, an organization, a system involving organisms and 
everything else contributing to their environment. 
Dr. Rudd, University of California zoologist, says that we must com- 
plicate our plant-insect ecosystem because it has become over-simplified 
(10), Our single crop method, with elimination of diverse fauna and 
landscapes, plus our unintentionally imported pests which have no enemies, 
have helped to make us dependent on modern pesticides, the use of which 
further simplifies the fauna. To re-constitute the ecosystem, we must 
conserve the variety we have left, continue strict quarantine (however 
imperfect), and manipulate the bioscene — i. e., manage the entire plant- 
insect community by means of good cultural practices and the biological 
controls heretofore discussed. 
Dr. Egler, national authority on vegetation management, writes of 
the whole human ecosystem which involves all other ecosystems (11). 
He refers to the web of this ecosystem which is: “. . . not only more com- 
plex than we think. It is more complex than we can think.” The strands 
of this web, through which pesticides enter the ecosystem, are those of 
agriculture, forestry, horticulture and certain branches of medicine dealing 
with pollen allergies, insect vectors of disease, and nutrition. “That they 
(these strands) are thought to be completely independent of the rest of 
the ecosystem is precisely at the root of the entire pesticide-ecosystem 
problem,” says Dr. Egler. Through all of these strands runs that of 
entomology and the applied insecticides. Other strands of the web deeply 
involved with pesticides are: wildlife; ranges and pastures; rights-of-ways 
and roadsides; conservation groups; and universities. 
Conservation groups are increasing their scope by their inclusion of 
all strands of the erosystemic web, Dr. Egler believes. On the other hand, 
he thinks that universities are failing in the matter. The science of ecology 
is weak and does not do a good job of communicating what it does have 
to offer; ecologists are frequently socially immature. There is a lack 
of adequate ecologic research by both government and the universities. 
Dr. Egler states: “What shows up especially and incontrovertibly is the 
non-existence of suitable ecosystemic teaching and research in our uni- 
versities.” Therefore, ecology does not exist as an effective strand at this 
time. Dr. Egler deplores the fact that there is a flood of literature by 
“specialist-‘experts’’”’? who speak only from the standpoint of their own 
strand in the ecosystem web. 
It is the hope of Dr. Egler that soon we will have an Institute for the 
Study of Ecosystem Science, with sufficient funds to carry on research 
and publish results. He concludes: “In our human ecosystem, the dis- 
location of one strand of this web, though possibly for the short-term good 
of that strand and of its short-sighted and narrow-minded custodians, 
can result in adverse readjustment through the whole web. The entire 
integrated ecosystem of life on earth is being weighed in the balance.” 
We as conservationists can be most influential in encouraging the study 
of the larger ecosystemic picture painted so vividly by Rachel Carson, 
understood so intelligently by the President’s Science Advisory Committee, 
and now put into concise terms by Dr. Egler. By our promotion of the 
advancement of ecology in its broadest sense, we shall be doing the most 
that we possibly can, not only for the whole world, but for that part per- 
taining to our special interests. 
