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Environment, Ecology & Earth's biodiversity
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An introductory paper to the exploration of consumer controlled "brown" (herbivore controlled) and "black" (fire controlled) ecosystems, as opposed to "green" (resource controlled) ecosystems considered the baseline for biome potential. This is a concept briefly explored in a paper I've posted in the paleoecology thread about megafauna function from the pleistocene to the holocene.
These are explored looking at Whittaker's ecosystem uncertain areas. These are where resources (characterised as temperature + rainfall) are of less importance in predicting a biome, where grassland or woody biomes can occur, suggesting these can be black or brown controlled.  *This image is copyright of its original author An example of an ecosystem uncertain zone is in south africa, where the consumer effects of megaherbivores and fire supress woody growth. The incongruence between what climate suggests and what consumers actualise can be seen below.  *This image is copyright of its original author More information is available in the full paper: Sci-Hub | Large parts of the world are brown or black: A different view on the “Green World”hypothesis. Journal of Vegetation Science, 16(3), 261–266 | 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2005.tb02364.x (sci-hub.st) |
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