Healthy ecosystems are characterized by sustainable turnovers of energy, nutrients, organic matter and water, which remain stable over comparatively long periods of time. This homeostasis emerges from the collective functions of the system's biota, operating within an exceedingly complex, integrated network. Stability is maintained by functional redundancy, whereby multiple species have similar ecological roles, thereby allowing function to be maintained even in the face of change. In their aggregation over the entire biosphere, ecosystem processes are critically important in regulating global cycles of water, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
In the current age of artificial intelligence, human genomics, perceptual robotics, flow visualization, advanced astrophysics and other high-tech whizzery, it is both disturbing and ironic that our understanding of vital ecological processes is rudimentary. One of the greatest intellectual challenges facing the scientific community is to unravel ecological complexity and to understand better how ecosystems evolve, how they assemble themselves and how they function. The importance of this immense task is greater than it has ever been because of the drastic changes in the functioning of eco-systems caused by humans. Through continued, unrestrained economic development, we may push ecosystems beyond a critical threshold, beyond which they are unable to sustain themselves and, ultimately, us.
