THE CONCEPT "COMPLEMENTARITY" AS THE BASIS FOR MODEL AND NATURE RECONSTRUCTION OF POTENTIAL BIOTA IN THE CURRENT CLIMATE

Abstract

From the prospective of ecosystem ecology, the huge role of the concept "complementarity" in perceiving the mechanisms of sustainable existence of the natural (pre-anthropogenic) biota is substantiated. A comparison of structural and functional organization between the paleobiota of Northern Eurasia and its fragments, survived until the present day, the modern biota, was performed in the main types of conservation areas. The incompleteness of the modern biota in natural reservations and its main cause are shown: direct or indirect destruction of key species that determined the possibility of the existence of large groups of subordinate species is described. It has been found out that as the anthropogenic exploration of Northern Eurasia intensifies, the ability of the biota’s fragments ("debris") to support ecosystem functions of the biosphere decreases. It is concluded that a fundamentally new direction in the protection of nature is to be developed: "Pleistocene Rewilding" formed on a world-wide basis as a result of the awareness of the need for active restoration of the biosphere functions of the Earth's ground cover.

Keywords

• complementarity
• key species
• biota
• paleoecology
• historical ecology
• reserves
• Pleistocene Rewilding