From lrbulluc@unity.ncsu.edu Thu Dec 30 13:12:27 1999 Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 13:10:37 -0500 From: Russ Bulluck To: Cass Peterson , Sustainable Ag Subject: Re: A biodiversity question It depends on whether you ask a grasslands ecologist or a forest ecologist! Joking aside, it depends. First one must define "healthy." Is a "healthy" ecosystem based on productivity or biodiversity? A number of relatively recent articles address the issue of biodiversity and ecosystem function: Grime.1997, Science 277:1260-1261 McGrady-Steel. 1997. Nature 390:162-165. Naeem & Li.1997, Nature 390: 507-509. Others have examined different types of ecosystems, and looked at various trophic and functional groups: Hunt et al. 1988. Ecology. 69:1009-1016. Ingham et al. 1989. Biol Fert Soils 8: 29-37. (Probably will tell you what you want to know) I don't have a lot of time right now to get into it. In fact this will likely be my last e-mail to the list until I arrive at UC-Davis for a post-doc. My new email there will be lrbulluck@ucdavis.edu -- Russ Bulluck, Ph.D. Department of Plant Pathology North Carolina State University PO Box 7616 Raleigh, NC 27695-7616 http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/plantpath/Personnel/Students/webpage.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The soil population is so complex that it manifestly cannot be dealt with as a whole with any detail by any one person, and at the same time it plays so important a part in the soil economy that it must be studied. --Sir E. John Russell The Micro-organisms of the Soil, 1923 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail