[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The problem of boundaries in defining ecosystems: A potential landmine for uniting geomorphology and ecology

## Details

**Authors** Post, David M. and Doyle, Martin W. and Sabo, John L. and Finlay, Jacques C.

**Year** 2007

**Publisher** Geomorphology

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Ecology

**Secondary disciplines** Geology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.07.014) 
10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.07.014

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To argue that linking geomorphology and ecosystem ecology requires a shared definition of an ecosystem, and to examine how the choice of ecosystem boundaries shapes the questions asked and the validity of the answers.

### What they found (results)

The authors conclude that because most ecosystem processes are scale dependent, any conceptualization of an ecosystem requires constraining its spatial and temporal scales, and that the choice of boundaries is of profound importance. The two disciplines differ in their scale-related biases. Using attempts to relate food web structure to ecosystem size as an example, they show that problems arise when community membership, resource supply and physical boundaries are only weakly associated, and when geomorphic and ecological processes operate on different, variable timescales.

## Commentary

### In short

The paper shows that what counts as an ecosystem depends on where its boundary is drawn, so the boundary is an act of distinction and not a given. The ecosystem is treated as a whole whose composition, resource supply and physical extent need not coincide, and the choice of scale changes which parts and processes are included.

**Patterns it shows** D, S

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-10-09

**How to cite this** Post, David M. and Doyle, Martin W. and Sabo, John L. and Finlay, Jacques C. (2007). The problem of boundaries in defining ecosystems: A potential landmine for uniting geomorphology and ecology. Geomorphology.