“Design principle #3: Nestedness”

In a recent speech given at Lawrence University, Geology professor Marcia Bjornerud presented a “list of five design principles that seem to be signatures of the House of Earth.” The third design principle she lists is Nestedness.

Bjornerud uses the term “nestedness” to describe the numerous levels of hierarchy in nature—“each level in the hierarchy enclosing a smaller but equally complex microcosm.” She says, “a high degree of nestedness—in which ‘specialist’ species…interact with only a limited number of generalist species from the next hierarchical level…this nestedness is what fosters biodiversity by reducing direct competition between coexisting species with similar survival strategies, just as small creeks in different watersheds don’t compete for rain. Yet the structure as a whole is energized—and stabilized—by the tangle of mutualistic interactions that link all levels and components.”

Although the most obvious application of nestedness is in informing wildlife conservation policies, Bjornerud suggests that it would serve us well to apply this principle in building “more robust, inclusive economic networks.” She claims that he growing gap between the haves and have-nots proves that we are not economically well nested; we are missing the “in-betweens.” We are also missing the middle-sized farm—instead we have small farms operating at the farmer market level and “mega-farms” serving agribusiness; the result is a broken food system dependent upon artificially low food prices—and artificial food, for that matter—to prop itself up. Nestedness can also serve us in designing our urban centers, and in managing our water resources—working to understand that in robust Earth systems, everything interacts, everything has it’s place, and no one player acts in isolation.

This idea of nestedness is admittedly messy—it does not fit into a neat mathematical formula or predictable computer model. But accepting—and embracing—this messiness is what will help us make more responsible, more inclusive, and more Earth-informed decisions, which will aid in bridging the gap we have placed between our planet and ourselves.

View the video of Bjornerud’s inspiring speech: