[font face=Serif][font size=5]Human impacts on natural world underestimated[/font]

[font size=4]New research on human influence in ecosystems set to inform conservation efforts[/font]

May 8, 2013

[font size=3]A comprehensive five-year study by University of Calgary ecologists – which included monitoring the activity of wolves, elk, cattle and humans – indicates that two accepted principles of how ecosystems naturally operate could be overshadowed by the importance of human activity.

“Understanding the significance of the impact that humans have on ecosystems is a critical component in formulating long-term and effective conservation strategies,” says principal investigator Marco Musiani.

“Our results led us to believe that ecologists have underestimated the impact of humans on natural food chains. The data we collected shows that humans are deliberately or inadvertently engineering ecosystems regardless of whether they would be naturally pre-disposed to top-down or bottom-up effects. Even in protected areas, the influence of humans might be greater than we previously thought.”

Ecologists have long debated whether natural ecosystems and associated food chains are primarily regulated by predators or by the productivity of plant species, called top-down and bottom-up effects, respectively. With most of the world’s ecosystems now dominated by humans, researchers from the University of Calgary sought to understand how much people influenced food chains in southwest Alberta.

…[/font][/font]