ИСТИНА

Ecological research plays a strategic role in ensuring a global transition to the path of sustainable development. Spontaneous «organic» evolution of ecological research is not sufficient for the timely resolution of a whole range of pressing issues. These issues call for organizational and financial support in the tried-and-true format of a dedicated international decade program. It is crucial to set the right priorities for such an IEP. Programs previously supported through international effort include: • a program for exploration of global ecosystem productivity (International Biological Program (IBP): 1994—1974, UNESCO); • an intergovernmental UNESCO program for the study of human impact on the biosphere (MaB: established in 1971); • an international program for biodiversity conservation of the International Union of Biological Sciences (established in 1982); However, like many other areas of ecological theory and practice, studies of ecosystem productivity and structure, anthropogenic pressures impacting the biota, or conservation of biological diversity have to rely on fundamental knowledge about the ecology of species, which is in catastrophically short supply. Autecology still constitutes the foundation of ecology. Attempts to focus efforts on demecology or sinecology were rather productive, however, they were limited in terms of their ability to answer the key questions of ecology: why does a particular species occupy a particular habitat? what causes sudden explosions in the population of a particular species? what shapes the species composition of a particular ecosystem? Answers to these key questions would help successfully tackle the following issues: 1) maximum permissible exposure limits for organisms, species, and ecosystems; 2) ecosystem productivity projections, including potential crop yields; 3) limits to community resilience in response to various types of natural disturbances and anthropogenic stress. Lack of knowledge about ecological specialization of species, or the nature of species' dependence on environmental factors on all stages of the life cycle, including intraspecies variability and norm of reaction, undermines the prospects of successful problem-solving in the various fields of theoretical and applied ecology. An international program for ecology would help to encourage the much needed intensification of autecology research; coordinate systematization, integration and cataloguing of all available knowledge on the ecology of all known species; determine plans for further coordinated research with international support; facilitate intercalibration of methods; support aggregation and synthesis of knowledge in order to promote its dissemination and appropriate use in environmental education; set up ecological monitoring systems; improve systems of indicators and criteria for ecological characterization of species, populations and ecosystems; promote the compilation of data bases on the ecological 'preferendum' of species and permissible exposure limits. It stands to reason that a special foundation should be established to provide international support for ecological research, including both large-scale comprehensive and costly studies and independent research projects on the ecology of selected species, conducted by small groups of scientists.