On the joint determination of biological and economic systems

Abstract Scarce natural resources and our choices to protect or develop them make ecological and economic systems jointly determined—human choices affect nature; nature affects human choices. This essay considers whether a dynamic model that integrates details of an economic system and an ecosystem with explicit feedback links between them yields significantly different results than does ignoring these links. We focus on the case of exotic invaders that put native species at risk in Yellowstone National Park. The results suggest that integration does matter—in each scenario, cutthroat trout populations differ in both magnitude and survival rates, depending on whether feedback is allowed between the two systems.

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