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Résumé :
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For a common, widespread, and familiar plant, Phragmites australis engenders an enormous level of scientific controversy and emotional conflict. In parts of the world, Phragmites is an important component of healthy ecosystems and an integral (if now minor) contributor to human economics. In other places, it is an invading, unfriendly, and ugly weed. To some scientists and environmentalists, Phragmites is an indicator of and key factor in landscape degradation and habitat deterioration. To others, it is a valiant remnant of nature, providing a relatively rich ecology where there might otherwise be only barren and eroding ground. Our review of the literature leads us to conclude that Phragmites is simply a biological entity. It is not inherently good or bad, since its evolution, biology, and ecology do not give it a value. The controversy over Phragmites, its role in the ecosystem, and the need for and intensity of management efforts are all artifacts of human perspectives. Effective, consistent management decisions (for either control or enhancement of Phragmites) can only be made on the basis of site-specific scientific findings, a consideration of technologies with their needed level-of-effort, and explicit exposition of the human values driving the management options. We present a simple decision model to illustrate the interaction of these management components for Phragmites in the environment.
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