The Ecology of Eden Chapter 1 (Spencer Mottley)

    The first chapter of "The Ecology of Eden" titled "The Marriage of Grass and Man", disscusses how we 

as humans shape the enviroment around us and partner with certain species to meet our own needs. As

disscussed in this chapter, one of the most usefull species humans have formed an allience with is grass. In

palothic times grass aided human expansion due to the fact it provided abundent forage for the rument

animals we often hunted. To facilitate the grassland conditions that the wild grazeing animals seeked.

Early man would often conduct prescribed burns to keep trees from establishing and to rid an area of dead

unproductive grass. Later on in neolthic times grass aided in human expansion because it provided forage

for pepoles livestock and certain varieties particularly domestic ones like corn were also consumed

directly by humans. To facilitate the growth of domesticated grasses humans would "make their bed and

plant their seed" (page 6). The relationship between humans and grass serves as a symbotic relationship or

partnership because grasses and humans both help each other out. Grasses help humans by provideing

forage for prey animals and livestock and by provideing humans with food directly. Humans help grass by

createing favorable growing conditions though varouis types of distrubances (noteabley fire) and though

planting the seeds of domestic grasses. Towards the end of the chapter the book discusses the difference

between pioneer species and expansionsit species and why humans fit into the expansionist category.

Pioneer species are organisms that thrive in the near immedite aftermath of a distrubence but often wither

away as the ecosystem restablizes, these species often act on their own and lack the ablity to form

symbotic relationships. Expansionist species on the other hand are organisms that act as the distrubence

themselves and have the ability to thrive in well established ecosystems and to form symbotic

relationships to facilitate their own success. Humans are an expansionist species because we create

distrubances ourselves instead of waiting for them to occur on their own, we form symbotic relationships

to facilitate our own success and we remain competive even as the ecosystem establishes around us. After

reading this chapter I was left with a question, "are invasive species generally pioneer species or

expansionist species? My answer to this question would be expansionist species because invasive species

have the ability to create distrubances on there own, overtake established ecosystems and in some cases

even form symbotic relationships with humans (for example, outdoor cats).

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