permaculture

[Rich Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

The discussion on permaculture and science got me thinking about some of 
the hypothesis of permaculture and whether they are testable, and this 
was brought to mind in a recent comment on
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Permaculture

"Sure, coastal areas are more full of life, there's rainfall, 
temperatures are moderate, but to jump to the conclusion that "edges" 
are valuable from that seems a stretch. Please provide more evidence, at 
least in the form of links or delete! Even if there is an advantage to 
the seashore, the coastal edge is tens of miles wide, while I've seen 
permaculture designs where there were edges every hundred feet or so, it 
might not scale down. Permaculture is an essential idea, so it becomes 
even more important that it doesn't get watered down by New Age 
superstitions."

Theres quite a few places in the permaculture literature where there are 
claims that edges are the most productive/most diverse. Is their any 
evidence to support these claims?

        Rich

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