1. Ian D. Rotherham Sheffield Hallam University
Developing an
Eco-fusion Framework
for novel ecosystems & hybrid ecologies
Ian D. Rotherham Sheffield Hallam University

2. Invasive, particularly alien species raise issues & cause problems for conservation & land management

3. Increasing need to provide integrated solutions to the challenges of invasions

4. Understanding invasion biology is critical to any meaningful response but the ecological effects of merging native and alien species to form novel communities are rarely discussed

5. Ideas and concepts of novel ecosystems and their hybrid ecologies have emerged with particular reference to North America & Australasia (e.g. Hobbs et al., 2006, 2009, 2013, & 2014).

6. Ideas of ‘novelty’ have been slower to find favour in Britain and Europe - early interest in ‘recombinant’ ecologies (e.g. Barker, 2000), have made little progress

7. This paper places concepts of novel ecosystems in a wider framework created for hybrid ecologies based on concepts of ecological fusion processes

8. However, whilst eco-fusion generates novelty in ecosystems, the process is not new & there are abundant historic precedents for hybrid systems

9. Future ecologies will be increasingly hybrid fusions of species History suggests this has always been the case

11. Nature conservation now faces major challenges For any hope of success, we need a bold view of a bigger, wilder, future landscape However, this must accommodate the inevitable changes, no matter how unpalatable they may seem

12. This will inevitably be a new nature forged of recombinant ecologies & intimate mixes of native & exotic species delivering ecosystem services & functions

13. Ecological fusion will generate hybrid ecology much as in the past

14. Whilst humanity triggered many drivers of such changes it also has potential to create templates on which nature can reconfigure its baseline condition

15. Some issues & take home messages……..
Wider concepts & ideas of novel ecologies don’t necessarily find an easy fit in GB / UK
Often faced with ‘habitat patches’ rather than intact, functioning ecosystems
Basic ecological processes and parameters still apply to hybrid systems

16. Eco-fusion & recombination will become evermore significant…..
Long history of eco-fusion
Global changes driving current & future recombination
Many changes are predictable
Many are inevitable

17. Readings:
Rotherham, I.D. (2015) Times they are a changin’ – Recombinant Ecology as an emerging paradigm. International Urban Ecology Review, 5, 1-19.
Rotherham, I.D. (2015) Relict communities and urban commons – urban distinctiveness, history and sustainable urban diversity. International Urban Ecology Review, 5,
Rotherham, I.D. (2017) Recombinant Ecology – a hybrid future? Springer Briefs, Springer, Dordrecht.
Rotherham, I.D. (2017) Eco-fusion of alien and native as a new conceptual framework for historical ecology. In: Vaz, E., de Melo, C.J., & Pinto, L. (eds) Environmental history in the making. Volume1, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands,

18. Rotherham, I. D. (2016) Recombinant Ecology – a hybrid future
Rotherham, I.D. (2016) Recombinant Ecology – a hybrid future? Springer Briefs in Ecology, Springer Publishing, Dordrecht