permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Rich Morris wrote:

> 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?

Marine estuaries are edge zones. How important are they? Very, as they
provide in some cases the only breeding ground available to many marine 
organisms.
Include in that rivers that merge with sounds and then the ocean.
Fish swim upstream to breed. So the distinction gets blurred, river as edge 
zone,
but in the context of one of the most important functions of edge zones, 
habitat
for breeding, it qualifies.
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech