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Why is ecological diversity important?

It is remarkable to me that it has taken so long to effectively harness the concept of diversity and the process of diversification as forces for transformation of the dominant industrial model of simplified, monoculture agriculture. For quite some time we have known the importance of diversity in natural ecosystems. This importance was pointed out by two giants in natural ecosystem ecology, both who recently left us. The passing of Thomas Lovejoy and E. O. Wilson gives us reason to reflect on the future of our planet, and hence the future of ourselves. Both of these people contributed greatly to our understanding of the nature of life. But most importantly, they made major contributions to our understanding of why ecological diversity is important. They saw bigger things! Tom Lovejoy is widely recognized as the conservation biologist credited with popularizing the term biodiversity, probably referring to it first as biological diversity before it was shortened to its more familiar version. He was also a passionate defender of the Amazon Rain Forest, establishing a pioneering project almost 40 years ago known as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project. The B.D.F.F.P. was a collaboration between ranchers and scientists to set up different sized patches of rain forest in order to study the impacts of forest clearing on species diversity over time. Small fragments too often lost species. E.O. Wilson is known by many as a modern day Darwin, and is perhaps best known as an evolutionary ecologist despite the controversy generated by his views about the field of sociobiology. His early work on the biogeography of Islands and his lifelong work on the incredible diversity of ants were united through his active involvement in the global conservation of biodiversity. His concern for the scale of extinction and biodiversity loss was expressed through his advocacy of forest protection, reaching the point in his later life where he called for setting aside 50% of the earth’s surface free of humans for other species to survive, concurrently ensuring our own survival. Diversity has a variety of dimensions. It starts with the number of species in a system, but it soon expands to include genetic, spatial, structural, functional, and temporal dimensions. All of them integrate in time and space, not to mention evolutionarily, to create and maintain the diverse assemblages of ecosystems occupying our planet. These dimensions interact, with complex relationships, dependencies, feedback loops, and ecological processes providing a foundation for ecosystem structure and function that leads to stability and resilience through time. AGROECOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS 2022, VOL. 46, NO. 3, 329–330 https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2022.2032513