The unique characteristics of each ecosystem impose significant constraints on the development of parsimonious concepts, principles,and theories. Lack of conceptual unity is widely recognized in ecology (Keddy 1989; Peters 1991; Pickett et al. 1994; Likens 1998) and natural resource management (Underwood 1995; Hobbs 1998). The paucity of
unifying principles imposes an important dichotomy on science and management: on the one hand, general concepts, which science should strive to attain, have little utility for site-specific management; on the other hand, detailed understanding of a particular system, which is required for effective management, makes little contribution to ecological theory. This disparity in goals is a significant obstacle to relevant discourse between science and management.