Systems Ecology

Many Caribbean coral reefs have experienced an increase in erect brown algae (species of Sargassum, Turbinaria and Lobophora) over the past 18 yr. We explored the effects of fleshy algal overgrowth on coral reef fishes by reducing erect algae by ~2.5 kg(wet) m -2 on 8 patch reefs (average size ~1000 m 2 ) whereby half were in a new no-fishing zone and half in an unrestricted fishing zone. Another 8 reefs were left as unmanipulated controls in the respective zones. Multivariate ordination indicated that the algal removal had marginal effect on whole-fish assemblages but that effect was highly significant on the biomass of common herbivores. The reduction of erect algae resulted in a rapid increase in the abundance of the blue-headed wrasse Thalassoma bifasciatum (Labridae), in the biomass of the blue tang Acanthurus coeruleus (Acanthuridae), and in both the abundance and biomass of the spotlight parrotfish Sparisoma viride (Scaridae). Bite rates and intra-and inter-specific aggressive encounters were used as measures of resource quality, and we found that these measures increased for surgeonfishes and damselfishes after the algal reduction, particularly in the center of the patch reefs, where most erect algae was originally located. Increased accessibility, net production and palatability of the early successional turf algae on the manipulated reefs are likely to account for the increased numbers, biomass and feeding rates of the dominant herbivorous fishes.

In their search for ever better trophic models, ecologists have often tried aggregating the number of species in order to better focus upon the variables that most interest them. Previous attempts at aggregating food webs have yielded varied results. We studied a series of different taxonomic aggregations on the same trophic network model of the Chesapeake Bay. The original 50-compartment model, which served as the control configuration, exhibited the highest value for the ascendency index. As expected, in those systems with fewer compartments the ascendency declined in monotonic fashion. The ascendency dropped precipitously for systems with fewer than 40 compartments and achieved its lowest value for systems with less than 29. Systems with the same number of compartments but different aggregations of species yielded different values of the ascendency. The aggregation of bacteria and ciliates resulted in a precipitous drop in the information of the network, revealing perhaps the significance of the microbial loop. Direct and indirect trophic impacts were also affected by the nature of the aggregation, and the impacts seemed to be exaggerated whenever species were lumped into single compartments.

In their search for ever better trophic models, ecologists have often tried aggregating the number of species in order to better focus upon the variables that most interest them. Previous attempts at aggregating food webs have yielded varied results. We studied a series of different taxonomic aggregations on the same trophic network model of the Chesapeake Bay. The original 50-compartment

The United States (USA) played a central role in the emergence of the digital economy with public investments in technology, structural power in defining informational standards, and sanctions against emerging competitors. An emblematic case refers to the information technology industry dispute between Brazil and the USA during the Reagan era. Although widely examined in foreign policy analysis, few studies address the conflict from a geopolitical perspective. This study seeks to fill this gap and aims to analyze the American sanctions applied to the Brazilian informatics industry, highlighting their geopolitical nature. A qualitative-analytical methodology is used based on bibliographic sources and the application of geoeconomics fundamentals. The litigation transcended mere market competition and was a part of American geopolitical objectives. Retaliations under section 301 of the Trade Act aimed to project USA interests, infiltrate American multinationals into the Brazilian market, and undermine a competing industry in their zone of influence. Unilateral sanctions are considered “economic weapons” of trade war and their use harms Brazilian technological autonomy and sovereignty. Brazil faces difficulties breaking technological dependence, whereas the US capitalizes on its long-term geostrategic vision, gaining advantages in the digital era. Every national project must be linked to geoeconomics to guarantee its sovereignty.

Adaptive management of social-ecological systems requires integration and collaboration among scientists, policy makers, practitioners, and stakeholders across multiple disciplines and organizations. Challenges associated with such integration have been attributed to gaps between how human systems are organized and how ecosystems function. To address this gap, we explore the application of information ecology as a theoretical basis for integrating human systems and natural systems. First, we provide an overview of information ecology with reference to its relationship with information theory and how we define "information." Principles governing whole-part relationships, i.e., holons and holarchies, are then used to develop a general information flow model for evolutionary, complex adaptive systems. This general model is then applied to examine a number of issues related to science-policy integration and in the development of a reference framework for practical application in adaptive management. A number of additional considerations for practical use of the framework are also discussed.

Ecological engineering (EE) and industrial ecology (IE) strive to balance humanity's activities with nature. The disciplines have emerged separately but share theoretical foundations and philosophies on how to address today's complex environmental issues. Although EE and IE share motive, goals, theories, and philosophies, there are many differences. These similarities and differences may make for a strong symbiotic relationship between the two fields. The goals of this article are (1) to compare and contrast the two fields to identify opportunities for collaboration and integration and (2) to suggest three crossdisciplinary focal areas that bridge EE and IE. The first symbiotic area, ecosystem engineering for byproduct recovery, is defined as the design, creation, and management of living ecosystems (e.g., forests, wetlands) that utilize the by-products of industrial systems. Examples of this exist, including constructed wetlands for lead recovery and phyto-mining of nickel tailings. The second symbiotic focus is entitled "ecosystem analogues for industrial ecology," which fits with a founding principle of IE to strive to have industry emulate the energy efficiencies and material cycles of natural ecosystems. This focal area quantifies the ecological analogy and exploits the tremendous library of design alternatives that nature has developed over thousands of years to deal with varied resource situations. The third focal area is termed "ecosystem information engineering." The means by which living ecosystems have created robust knowledge systems and information cycles should be understood in terms useful for managing current society's information explosion. As industrial society evolves toward the information society, holistic models are needed that account for the available energy and material resources required to operate effective information ecosystems, such as service industries.

Education to the "integral ecology". Focus on the social teaching of Pope Francis and his encyclical Laudato si'. The intention of the author of this article is a presentation of the social teaching of Pope Francis on the basis of his green encyclical related primarily to human ecology and environmental ecology, forming both in every family and then at school and university by the media and culture. Education in 'integral ecology' is intended to be sensitive to the various aspects of ecology and consequently the protection of human and social life against environmental degradation. Education is a long term process and therefore is concerned about an intergenerational 'Common Home' , so it cannot be ignored by macro and micro structures of economy or ecology. Pope Francis indicates the correlation between ecology and economy, between environmental ecology and the ecology of man (human ecology) and above all, his moral condition. Social and economic systems must remain on guard to ensure that the balance between the biological and the ecosystem has been properly preserved. In the social assessment and analysis, Pope Francis criticises globalisation, neo-liberalism as a form of a new colonialism providing false ecology in economy and in a global politics ultimately directed against developing countries and the poor and excluded. Therefore education which begins in the family has to take into account the problems of ecological crisis and the crisis of ecology of man and his moral condition. The social teaching of Pope Francis shows, as never before, the close relationship between economy, ecology and social ethics. Edukacja do "teologii integralnej". Nauczanie społeczne papieża Franciszka w encyklice Laudato si'. Intencją autora artykułu jest prezentacja myśli społecznej papieża Franciszka w oparciu głównie o zieloną encyklikę-Laudato si', związaną

The intention of the author of this article is a presentation of the social teaching of Pope Francis on the basis of his green encyclical related primarily to human ecology and environmental ecology, forming both in every family and then at school and university by the media and culture. Education in ‘integral ecology’ is intended to be sensitive to the various aspects of ecology and consequently the protection of human and social life against environmental degradation. Education is a long term process and therefore is concerned about an intergenerational ‘Common Home’, so it cannot be ignored by macro and micro structures of economy or ecology. Pope Francis indicates the correlation between ecology and economy, between environmental ecology and the ecology of man (human ecology) and above all, his moral condition. Social and economic systems must remain on guard to ensure that the balance between the biological and the ecosystem has been properly preserved. In the social assessment...

Biology and ecology are, in many ways, lacking universal laws and predictive theory, and most biologists and ecologists have been feeling the need for a more general and integrative theoretical network that may help in explaining their observations and experimental results. Thermodynamics has been widely applied in ecosystem theory since input, output, and cycling of mass and energy constitute the basis of ecological processes without exception. In this paper, we try to show that it is possible to explain different empirical biological and ecological observations in terms of a comprehensive thermodynamic hypothesis, instead of interpreting results according to a number of non-universal generalisations (e.g. the optimal partition theory or the 'generalised niche model'). The intention is to contribute to the elaboration of a general theoretical framework in biology and ecology, of which the thermodynamic hypothesis could be a part. The proposed approach is shown to be robust enough to provide an integrated explanation for the selected set of observations, and the fact that it was able to explain field observations and experiments supports the hypothesis. A stepwise approach is employed in developing a consistent theoretical framework, considered necessary to build new horizons for biology and ecology.

In this paper, we identified seven ecological network analysis (ENA) metrics that, in our opinion, have high potential to provide useful and practical information for environmental decision-makers and stakeholders. Measurement and quantification of the network indicators requires that an ecosystem level assessment is implemented. The ENA metrics convey the status of the ecological system state variables, and mostly, the flows and relations between the various nodes of the network. The seven metrics are: 1) Average Path Length (APL), 2) Finn Cycling Index (FCI), 3) Mean Trophic level (MTL), 4) Detritivory to Herbivory ratio (D:H), 5) Keystoneness, 6) Structural Information (SI), and 7) Flow-based Information indices. The procedure for calculating each metric is detailed along with a short evaluation of their potential assessment of environmental status.

The idea of the interdependency of the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems emerged from the interplay of theory and concepts from medicine, public health and ecology among leading thinkers in these fields during the last century. The rationale for One Health and its focus on the "human, animal, and environmental interface" stems from this legacy and points to transdisciplinary, ecological and complex systems approaches as central to One Health practice. Demonstration of One Health's efficacy, its wider adoption and continual improvement require explicit operational criteria and evaluation metrics on this basis. Social-Ecological Systems Theory with its unique conception of resilience (SESR) currently offers the most well-developed framework for understanding these approaches and development of performance standards. This paper describes operational criteria for One Health developed accordingly, including a protocol currently being tested for vector borne disease interventions. Wider adoption of One Health is most likely to occur as One Health practitioners gain an increasing familiarity with ecological and complex systems concepts in practice employing a transdisciplinary process. Two areas in which this inevitably will be required for significant further progress, and where the beginnings of a foundation for building upon exist, include: (1) Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases, and (2) successful implementation of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The former includes the challenge of stemming the threat of new microbial pathogens, anti-microbial resistant variants of existing pathogens, as well as resurgence of malaria and other recalcitrant diseases. The applicability of SESR in this regard is illustrated with two case examples from the Greater Mekong Subregion, Avian Influenza (H5N1) and Liver Fluke (Opisthorchis viverrni). Each is shown to represent a science and policy challenge suggestive of an avoidable social-ecological system pathology that similarly has challenged sustainable development. Thus, SESR framing arguably is highly applicable to the SDGs, which, to a large extent, require consideration of human-animal-environmental health linkages. Further elaboration of these One Health operational criteria and metrics could contribute to the achievement of many of the SDGs.

World-systemic processes of capital accumulation are inextricably intermeshed with ecology. Not only do they have obvious repercussions on landscapes and ecosystems ( e.g., erosion, deforestation), but they are also fundamentally dependent on ecological aspects such as topsoil, forests, or minerals. The analytical disjunction of ecology and economics is a persistent feature of modern science. The minority of researchers who have seriously tried to integrate them in a common theoretical framework (cf. Martinez-Alier 1987) have run into major, conceptual difficulties. This paper addresses some of the issues raised in an attempt to ground the notion of capital accumulation in the physical realities of ecology and thermodynamics.

Understanding soil systems is critical because they form the structural and nutritional foundation for plants and thus every terrestrial habitat and agricultural system. In this paper, we encourage increased use of mathematical models to drive forward understanding of interactions in soil ecological systems. We discuss several distinctive features of soil ecosystems and empirical studies of them. We explore some perceptions that

This article analyses social inequality and political processes in post-Communist Lithuania, using the neo-Weberian class theory of Robert Erikson, John Goldthorpe and Lucienne Portocarero (EGP). The opening section considers why the analysis of social structure, which was a central concern in classical sociology, has been so neglected in Lithuanian sociology since the restoration of independence. There are just two exceptions to this trend, discussed in the same section – Rūta Brazienė’s 2002 thesis and the 2005 volume edited by Arvydas Matulionis. The first part also compares inductive (data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) methodologies of social structure analysis to substantiate the advantages of the latter for this article’s empirical analysis. The second part outlines EGP class theory, considered as a creative continuation of Weber’s classical analysis of social structure, and as a genuine alternative to Marx’s theory of classes and class struggle. EGP class theory is co...

Energy systems theory provides a theoretical basis for defining, measuring, and interpreting the concepts of ecological integrity and ecosystem health. Ecological integrity is defined as an emergent property of ecosystems operating at maximum power that can be quantified using validated Energy Systems models. The cumulative empower production (emergy) calculated using these models is proposed as a measure of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity must be interpreted within the context of an ecosystem's position within the relevant hierarchies of organization and cycles of change that control system behavior. The local integrity and health of an ecosystem are normative concepts because they are evaluated relative to a standard or reference state. The underlying emergy signature responsible for generating ecosystem organization provides an expectation for this reference state. Ecosystems also have global integrity, which is manifested as the flexibility to maximize empower over time in the face of changing external forcing functions. Global integrity has no fixed reference but can be evaluated by comparing alternative system designs. Because the maximum empower principle is a general law that applies to all self-organizing systems on all scales, these definitions for ecological integrity and ecosystem health apply to both natural ecosystems and ecosystems dominated by human activities. Humandominated ecosystems with the highest integrity will be those in which the sum of the empower produced by the economy and its supporting ecosystems is close to a maximum.

who have generously provided me with advice, wisdom and encouragement-I offer my deepest thanks and appreciation for all that you have done to help me along to the finish line. I would especially like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Fred Taylor for being a consistent tour de force, always willing to field a phone call, to read over my chapters, or to discuss the more philosophical aspects that have helped to shape and articulate my work. I am blessed to have such a great writing coach, trouble shooter and friend. To my friend(s) who have supported me, and have given me the time and space to do this work, knowing that our friendships would always endure-thank you! I would also like to acknowledge all of the dancers (and crew) who have joined me in so many grand adventures, dancing through the years, on Mt. Monadnock. You have graced that rocky stage with your presence and diverse talents! And as I acknowledge Mt. Monadnock, I look forward to the next chapter of mountain adventures. Finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation and deepest gratitude for my wonderful and always amazing dance company/ research team members. Thank you for all your many sacrifices, to help me bring this project to fruition; for your enthusiasm, endurance, insights, perspectives, artistry, creativity and trust in my vision. I thank you for the vital gifts that you have contributed to this work.

This research explores the complexity of the human-nature relationship through the emergent arts-based lens of environmental dance. The work is guided by a transdisciplinary mission—to actively create bridges and connections between and among disciplines typically thought to be independent bodies of knowledge in their own right: here they merge and become synergistic partners, producing a new way of knowing that is greater than the sum of two independently-partnered disciplines. A transdisciplinary approach opens us to know a multiverse where a holistic perspective expands the traditionally singular viewpoint of the existing predominant Cartesian paradigm. The study allows space for “environmental dance” to emerge as a true transdiscipline. Furthermore, this project is based upon the intuitive sense that the arts, once again, as exemplified by “environmental dance,” can offer nuanced insights and pedagogical strategies for future research and development, which may inspire and guide...

Published measures of cycling in compartmental models are based on throughflow. Throughflow consists of flow only, not storage. Inclusive throughflow is introduced as a concept that includes both flow and storage. Cycling measures based on this concept are developed. Two Markov chains expressing the probability of transfer of substance from compartment j to i in one unit of transition time are constructed. The first is the conventional, throughflow-based model; second is an extended model based on inclusive throughflow with adjustable time step. This latter model is considered for two cases: storage accounted for and ignored, and is employed to illustrate derived relationships utilizing a small ecosystem energy flow model. Principal conclusions are: (1) cycling measures derived from the conventional throughflow-based model would overestimate cycling as given by the inclusive throughflow model, because they fail to distinguish storage from true cycling; (2) storages exceed cycled flow over low-ordered paths, but (3) decline in importance with increasing path length; (4) path diversity is greater in systems with storage than in corresponding systems without storage; (5) nonstorage path numbers increase combinatorially with path length; (6) cycling tends to become dominant over storage at higher path lengths, and (7) at differing rates for different compartments; (8) true cycling efficiency of each compartment i for the inclusive through flow model is corrected from the conventional model formulation (q;;-1)/q;; to [qii-1/(1-P;;)]/qii (P;, is the probability of substance in i remaining there over a transition time interval; q, is the cumulative substance returned to i over all paths of all lengths in the system); (9) this corrected cycling efficiency of each compartment with respect to inclusive throughflow equals that of the same compartment with respect to only the throughflow component as derived from the conventional model; (10) on the system level, however, the modified cycling index based on inclusive throughflow gives different values for cycling than the published cycling index derived from conventional throughflow; and (11) the modified cycling measures based on the inclusive throughflow model with an adjustable time step are independent of the chosen time step, and thus valid even for the continuous time case which is approached by the employed discrete time model as the time step approaches zero.

Published measures of cycling in compartmental models are based on throughflow. Throughflow consists of flow only, not storage. Inclusive throughflow is introduced as a concept that includes both flow and storage. Cycling measures based on this concept are developed. Two Markov chains expressing the probability of transfer of substance from compartment j to i in one unit of transition time are constructed. The first is the conventional, throughflow-based model; second is an extended model based on inclusive throughflow with adjustable time step. This latter model is considered for two cases: storage accounted for and ignored, and is employed to illustrate derived relationships utilizing a small ecosystem energy flow model. Principal conclusions are: (1) cycling measures derived from the conventional throughflow-based model would overestimate cycling as given by the inclusive throughflow model, because they fail to distinguish storage from true cycling; (2) storages exceed cycled flow over low-ordered paths, but (3) decline in importance with increasing path length; (4) path diversity is greater in systems with storage than in corresponding systems without storage; (5) nonstorage path numbers increase combinatorially with path length; (6) cycling tends to become dominant over storage at higher path lengths, and (7) at differing rates for different compartments; (8) true cycling efficiency of each compartment i for the inclusive through flow model is corrected from the conventional model formulation (q;;-1)/q;; to [qii-1/(1-P;;)]/qii (P;, is the probability of substance in i remaining there over a transition time interval; q, is the cumulative substance returned to i over all paths of all lengths in the system); (9) this corrected cycling efficiency of each compartment with respect to inclusive throughflow equals that of the same compartment with respect to only the throughflow component as derived from the conventional model; (10) on the system level, however, the modified cycling index based on inclusive throughflow gives different values for cycling than the published cycling index derived from conventional throughflow; and (11) the modified cycling measures based on the inclusive throughflow model with an adjustable time step are independent of the chosen time step, and thus valid even for the continuous time case which is approached by the employed discrete time model as the time step approaches zero.

How to predict the evolution of ecosystems is one of the numerous questions asked of ecologists by managers and politicians. To answer this we will need to give a scientific definition to concepts like sustainability, integrity, resilience and ecosystem health. This is not an easy task, as modern ecosystem theory exemplifies. Ecosystems show a high degree of complexity, based upon a high number of compartments, interactions and regulations. The last two decades have offered proposals for interpretation of ecosystems within a framework of thermodynamics. The entrance point of such an understanding of ecosystems was delivered more than 50 years ago through Schrödinger’s and Prigogine’s interpretations of living systems as “negentropy feeders” and “dissipative structures”, respectively. Combining these views from the far from equilibrium thermodynamics to traditional classical thermodynamics, and ecology is obviously not going to happen without problems. There seems little reason to do...

Energy systems theory provides a theoretical basis for defining, measuring, and interpreting the concepts of ecological integrity and ecosystem health. Ecological integrity is defined as an emergent property of ecosystems operating at maximum power that can be quantified using validated Energy Systems models. The cumulative empower production ( emergy ) calculated using these models is proposed as a measure of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity must be interpreted within the context of an ecosystem's position within the relevant hierarchies of organization and cycles of change that control system behavior. The local integrity and health of an ecosystem are normative concepts because they are evaluated relative to a standard or reference state. The underlying emergy signature responsible for generating ecosystem organization provides an expectation for this reference state. Ecosystems also have global integrity, which is manifested as the flexibility to maximize empower over time in the face of changing external forcing functions. Global integrity has no fixed reference but can be evaluated by comparing alternative system designs. Because the maximum empower principle is a general law that applies to all self-organizing systems on all scales, these definitions for ecological integrity and ecosystem health apply to both natural ecosystems and ecosystems dominated by human activities. Humandominated ecosystems with the highest integrity will be those in which the sum of the empower produced by the economy and its supporting ecosystems is close to a maximum. * By convention transformities lower than 1.0E5 are reported to the nearest whole integer.

Energy systems theory provides a theoretical basis for defining, measuring, and interpreting the concepts of ecological integrity and ecosystem health. Ecological integrity is defined as an emergent property of ecosystems operating at maximum power that can be quantified using validated Energy Systems models. The cumulative empower production ( emergy ) calculated using these models is proposed as a measure of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity must be interpreted within the context of an ecosystem's position within the relevant hierarchies of organization and cycles of change that control system behavior. The local integrity and health of an ecosystem are normative concepts because they are evaluated relative to a standard or reference state. The underlying emergy signature responsible for generating ecosystem organization provides an expectation for this reference state. Ecosystems also have global integrity, which is manifested as the flexibility to maximize empower over time in the face of changing external forcing functions. Global integrity has no fixed reference but can be evaluated by comparing alternative system designs. Because the maximum empower principle is a general law that applies to all self-organizing systems on all scales, these definitions for ecological integrity and ecosystem health apply to both natural ecosystems and ecosystems dominated by human activities. Humandominated ecosystems with the highest integrity will be those in which the sum of the empower produced by the economy and its supporting ecosystems is close to a maximum. * By convention transformities lower than 1.0E5 are reported to the nearest whole integer.

A model that simulated the daily production of 100 theoretical algal populations was used to define a sampling universe for the construction and evaluation of aggregated models of phytoplankton community structure. Three model communities consisting of ten populations each were constructed by aggregating parameters from subsets of the original 100 populations. Populations were aggregated according to different criteria: (1) correlations between their individual annual production and total annual production of all 100 populations, (2) correlations between individual population late summer production and total algal production during this period, and (3) similarities among model parameters that determined individual population growth rates. A fourth model community was constructed by classifying all 100 populations into four groups according to their individual seasonal patterns of growth. Cross comparisons of model performance with total community production values demonstrated that aggregates based on correlation with annual production reproduced total annual production within 6% of the actual value. The community aggregate derived from seasonal patterns of individual population growth was the poorest overall predictor, underestimating total annual production by 24% and late summer production by 4%. The model community derived from late summer production underestimated total annual production by 18%, but predicted summer production under simulated increased temperatures and nutrient availability within 1% of the actual value. These aggregation exercises demonstrated the importance of

Network analysis has revealed several whole-network properties hypothesized to be general characteristics of ecosystems. These include pathway proliferation, and network non-locality, homogenization, amplification, mutualism, and synergism. Collectively these properties characterize the impact of indirect interactions among ecosystem elements. While ecosystem networks generally trace a thermodynamically conserved unit through the system, there appear to be several model classes. For example, trophic (TRO) networks are built around a food web, usually follow energy or carbon, and are the most abundant models in the literature. Biogeochemical cycling (BGC) networks trace nutrients like nitrogen or phosphorus and tend to have more aggregated nodes, less dissipation, and more recycling than TRO. We tested (1) the hypothesized generality of the properties in BGC networks and (2) that they tend to be more strongly expressed in BGC networks than in the TRO networks due to increased recycling. We compared the properties in 22 biogeochemical and 57 trophic ecosystem networks from the literature using enaR. We also evaluated the robustness of these results with an uncertainty analysis. The results generally support the hypotheses. First, five of the properties occurred in varying degrees in all 22 BGC models, while network mutualism occurred in 86% of the models. Further, these results were generally robust to a ±50% uncertainty in the model parameters. Second, the average network statistics for the six properties were statistically significantly greater in the BGC models than the TRO models. These results (1) confirm the general presence of these properties in ecosystem networks, (2) highlight the significance of different model types in determining property intensities, (3) reinforce the importance of recycling, and (4) provide a set of indicator benchmarks for future systems comparisons. Further, this work highlights how indirect effects distributed by network connectivity can transform whole-ecosystem functioning, and adds to the growing domain of network ecology.

In this paper, we identified seven ecological network analysis (ENA) metrics that, in our opinion, have high potential to provide useful and practical information for environmental decision-makers and stakeholders. Measurement and quantification of the network indicators requires that an ecosystem level assessment is implemented. The ENA metrics convey the status of the ecological system state variables, and mostly, the flows and relations between the various nodes of the network. The seven metrics are: 1) Average Path Length (APL), 2) Finn Cycling Index (FCI), 3) Mean Trophic level (MTL), 4) Detritivory to Herbivory ratio (D:H), 5) Keystoneness, 6) Structural Information (SI), and 7) Flow-based Information indices. The procedure for calculating each metric is detailed along with a short evaluation of their potential assessment of environmental status.

Diversity is expected to increase the resilience of ecosystems. Nevertheless, highly diverse ecosystems have collapsed, as did Lake Victoria's ecosystem of cichlids or Caribbean coral reefs. We try to gain insight to this paradox, by analyzing a simple model of a diverse community where each competing species inflicts a small mortality pressure on an introduced predator. High diversity strengthens this feedback and prevents invasion of the introduced predator. After a gradual loss of native species, the introduced predator can escape control and the system collapses into a contrasting, invaded, low-diversity state. Importantly, we find that a diverse system that has high complementarity gains in resilience, whereas a diverse system with high functional redundancy gains in resistance. Loss of resilience can display early-warning signals of a collapse, but loss of resistance not. Our results emphasize the need for multiple approaches to studying the functioning of ecosystems, as m...

Industrial ecology is a systemic organizing framework for the many facets of environmental management. I t views the industrial world as a natural system, embedded in local ecosystems and the global biosphere. It provides a fundamental understanding of the value of modeling the industrial system on ecosystems to achieve sustainable environmental performance. In this article, the author shows how it ofers powerfill tools of analysis that complement and enhance those offered by such approaches as Total Quality Environmental Management or pollution prevention.

Purpose: The main objective of this work is to evaluate the natural capital and ecosystem services of the Aquidauana River and the role of Lontra longicaudis and Pteronura brasiliensis as environmental assets for the development of conservation tourism. Research Methodology: First, a system diagram was built to organize ideas and relationships between components and resource flows. Second, it was to construct tables of emergy flows directly from the diagrams. Quantities of stored emergy of environmental resources are calculated from the sum of the emergy of all inputs and then multiplied by the time it takes to accumulate the storage. Results: The main services with market values ​​provided by the Aquidauana River are water supply, tourism, and fishing. The neotropical otter exhibited the largest asset in the system, followed by the giant otter and the indigenous culture. Limitations: Application of the emergy method to define public policies that lead to the real valuation of envir...

The arguments in the article are based on the ongoing discourse in the academic community and among stakeholders, which has contributed to the articulation of the concepts and premises of sustainable development and the role of learning modalities, technologies and networks. The article draws on this discourse to explore the economic aspects of sustainable development, focusing on pervasive poverty, and the implications for educational actions. The concepts and underlying premises of education for sustainable development (ESD) are discussed. The article presents the key elements of an integrated approach to fighting poverty in the context of sustainable development. The role of learning and education in this integrated approach is outlined, framing the educational elements within the perspective of lifelong learning.

This research compares two existing methodologies, mixed trophic impact analysis and utility analysis, which use network analysis to evaluate the direct, pair-wise, and indirect, holistic, ecological relations between ecosystem compartments. The two approaches have many similarities, but differ in some key assumptions which affect both the final results and interpretations. Here, we briefly introduce both methodologies through a series of two simple examples; a 3-compartment competition model and a 3-compartment food chain model, and then apply the methodologies to a 15-compartment ecosystem model of the Chesapeake Bay. This example demonstrates how implementing the various conceptual and methodological assumptions lead to differing results. Notably, the overall number of positive relations is greatly affected by the treatment of the self-interactions and the handling of detritus compartments lead to a distinction between ecological or trophic relations. We recommend slight changes to both methodologies, not necessarily in order to bring them completely together, but because each has some points which are stronger and better defensible.

In this paper, we identified seven ecological network analysis (ENA) metrics that, in our opinion, have high potential to provide useful and practical information for environmental decision-makers and stakeholders. Measurement and quantification of the network indicators requires that an ecosystem level assessment is implemented. The ENA metrics convey the status of the ecological system state variables, and mostly, the flows and relations between the various nodes of the network. The seven metrics are: 1) Average Path Length (APL), 2) Finn Cycling Index (FCI), 3) Mean Trophic level (MTL), 4) Detritivory to Herbivory ratio (D:H), 5) Keystoneness, 6) Structural Information (SI), and 7) Flow-based Information indices. The procedure for calculating each metric is detailed along with a short evaluation of their potential assessment of environmental status.

Embodied water in a socioeconomic system refers to the hidden water contained in products traded from one region or one sector to another and has been the center of concern for water management in recent years. However, most models developed for water system analysis ignore cycling and indirect flows, making it difficult to explain the effects of structure on these factors among sectors. Therefore, those models fail to examine the water utilization efficiency from an integral view. In this study, we investigate an embodied socioeconomic water system using network analysis developed originally for ecological systems. In this manner, we identify structural and throughflow indicators, such as Finn Cycling Index, Indirect effects ratio, and aggradation, to show the efficiency of water utilization. The three indicators show different perspectives of the system's efficiency change over time, indicating that only the combination of these three indicators can provide a holistic portray about efficiency. Results showed that the structure influenced the cycling and indirect flows, and from a throughflow perspective, the system depends on large boundary inputs of fresh water. Furthermore, the values of Cycling Index and Indirect effect ratio are much lower than for natural food webs, implying that the policies that led to the structural change and reduction of boundary fresh water inputs do not lead to positive water utilization seen in natural systems. This study provides a novel perspective and methodology for assessing the structure and efficiency of water utilization system with a whole perspective.

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This research compares two existing methodologies, mixed trophic impact analysis and utility analysis, which use network analysis to evaluate the direct, pair-wise, and indirect, holistic, ecological relations between ecosystem compartments. The two approaches have many similarities, but differ in some key assumptions which affect both the final results and interpretations. Here, we briefly introduce both methodologies through a series of two simple examples; a 3-compartment competition model and a 3-compartment food chain model, and then apply the methodologies to a 15-compartment ecosystem model of the Chesapeake Bay. This example demonstrates how implementing the various conceptual and methodological assumptions lead to differing results. Notably, the overall number of positive relations is greatly affected by the treatment of the self-interactions and the handling of detritus compartments lead to a distinction between ecological or trophic relations. We recommend slight changes to both methodologies, not necessarily in order to bring them completely together, but because each has some points which are stronger and better defensible.

One of the biggest challenges faced today is how to sustainably manage social-ecological systems for both ecological conservation and human wellbeing. This paper explores two approaches to understanding such systems: resilience thinking and political ecology. Resilience thinking is a framework that emerged over the last 40 years as a management strategy for social-ecological systems, and a resilient social-ecological system is capable of absorbing disturbances and still retaining its basic function and structure. Political ecology is derived from cultural ecology and political economy and aims to critically examine how human-environment interactions are linked to environmental problems while exploring issues of power. Drawing from debates and theoretical issues both within and between these two theories, this paper proposes three main arguments for integrating political ecology into managing for resilience. First, political ecology could help fill in understanding gaps in resilience with its focus on society and politics, while resilience thinking's focus on ecology can ensure that political ecology engages with ecology. Second, the multiple lenses of political ecology may help define the system for resilience management. Third, political ecology's explanatory power may assist in identifying surrogates of resilience for indirectly measuring social-ecological resilience.

One of the biggest challenges faced today is how to sustainably manage social-ecological systems for both ecological conservation and human wellbeing. This paper explores two approaches to understanding such systems: resilience thinking and political ecology. Resilience thinking is a framework that emerged over the last 40 years as a management strategy for social-ecological systems, and a resilient social-ecological system is capable of absorbing disturbances and still retaining its basic function and structure. Political ecology is derived from cultural ecology and political economy and aims to critically examine how human-environment interactions are linked to environmental problems while exploring issues of power. Drawing from debates and theoretical issues both within and between these two theories, this paper proposes three main arguments for integrating political ecology into managing for resilience. First, political ecology could help fill in understanding gaps in resilience with its focus on society and politics, while resilience thinking's focus on ecology can ensure that political ecology engages with ecology. Second, the multiple lenses of political ecology may help define the system for resilience management. Third, political ecology's explanatory power may assist in identifying surrogates of resilience for indirectly measuring social-ecological resilience.

In the past couple of decades, molecular ecological techniques have been developed to elucidate microbial diversity and distribution in microbial ecosystems. Currently, modern techniques, represented by meta-omics and single cell observations, are revealing the incredible complexity of microbial ecosystems and the large degree of phenotypic variation. These studies propound that microbiological techniques are insufficient to untangle the complex microbial network. This minireview introduces the application of advanced mathematical approaches in combination with microbiological experiments to microbial ecological studies. These combinational approaches have successfully elucidated novel microbial behaviors that had not been recognized previously. Furthermore, the theoretical perspective also provides an understanding of the plasticity, robustness and stability of complex microbial ecosystems in nature.

Ecological engineering' is relatively recent. It resembles chemical, hydrological and other engineering where the title indicates another discipline specialisation (ecology, chemistry, hydrology) is closely associated. Differently, civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering titles indicate engineering subdivisions based on areas of application. The ecological engineering title is twice asymmetric: it indicates a kind of engineering, not science (engineering ecology); and only part of ecological science has as yet been included in ecological engineering. The 'civil' engineering descriptor is defined by its context, rather than this area being defined by its descriptor. Civil engineering includes a specialisation with another inappropriately undescriptive title */environmental engineering. Ecological and environmental engineering are readily confused by the public, ecologists, and other engineers. There have recently been laudable efforts by engineers, ecologists, economists, writers, and many others to move society towards more sustainable living. Young engineers can be encouraged in this by greater understanding of ecology and sustainability in their academic and professional formation. The desirable formation of ecological engineers remains unclear. Meanwhile, many approaches exist to introducing ecological understanding and principles of sustainability into other engineering academic curricula. Some approaches are discussed in this paper, in the context of developing appropriate education and training in ecological engineering.

This paper provides new insights into the electricity tracing methodology, by representing the inverted tracing upstream and downstream distribution matrices in the form of matrix power series and by applying linear algebra analysis. The th matrix power represents the contribution of each node to power flows in the other nodes through paths of length exactly in the digraph of flows. Such a representation proves the link between graph-based and linear equation-based approaches for electricity tracing. It also makes it possible to explain an earlier observation that circulating flows, which result in a cyclic directed graph of flows, can be detected by appearance of elements greater than one on the leading diagonal of the inverted tracing distribution matrices. Most importantly, for the first time a rigorous mathematical proof of the invertibility of the tracing distribution matrices is given, along with a proof of convergence for the matrix power series used in the paper; these proofs also allow an analysis of the conditioning of the tracing distribution matrices. Theoretical results are illustrated throughout using simple network examples.

Biologically Inspired Design (biomimicry) and Industrial Ecology both look to natural systems to enhance the sustainability and performance of engineered products, systems and industries. Bioinspired design (BID) traditionally has focused on a unit operation and single product level. In contrast, this paper describes how principles of network organization derived from analysis of ecosystem properties can be applied to industrial system networks. Specifically, this paper examines the applicability of particular food web matrix properties as design rules for economically and biologically sustainable industrial networks, using an optimization model developed for a carpet recycling network. Carpet recycling network designs based on traditional cost and emissions based optimization are compared to designs obtained using optimizations based solely on ecological food web metrics. The analysis suggests that networks optimized using food web metrics also were superior from a traditional cost...

Bellerophons ho ve trieJ ro put pa iJ to the monseer. N"eJham has chaliengeJ the validity of prevailing principles and modes of classification (1971 , 1975). Schneider has sought to sever the cu ltu ral constructs fmm a he rerogeneous social conglomera te (1968. 1972); while Inden has twea ked its metaphysical tail by pointing Qut thac oth er cultures may have quite Jifferenr assumptions about how humans are related (1 976). Yet the monster staggers on. largely I suspect because anth ropology is heir tn a strongly essentialist inrellec ru al tradition. U nl ess we are quite clear about what kind of C thin g' kinship is, we may flnJ we have bee n wast ing our rime calking about it. There are three gro unds on which I wis h to arglle that kinship does not have the kind of reality uSlially attributeJ to it. First. ,here is a ptoblem of (Tansla,ion and compari son. H ow Jo we know (h ar what we ca ll kin ship denmes somedling comparable in another c lll[Ure~ Second, chere is rh e ques rion of whac statemenrs abollt ki"ship are abollt. Are we deali ng wi th descriptions abo ut ,he world ! O r is it more a matter of what va ri ous classi fica tions of relationships may be used , for pa rticular purposes, to asse rt, claim , challenge Or J eny' Finally, [here is the metaphysical issue of what the members of different cultures recogni ze. ex plicitly or implicitly, as existing in their world. How does the classifica rion of relationships relate (0 what is held to exist! In other words, how are events, Mares and agents or whateve r unde rstood in Jj fferent cultura l theories of being, idenrity, nature, causa tion and so fonh ? I wo ulJ suggest th at using rhe notion of kinshi p, even as 'an odd-job word ', tends [Q cover up the difficulty in knowing how we translate; what uses of language may exi st; and wherher (h e entities classified by other cultures are remmely comparable. Our cultural heritage has yielded a pa rticular jural, moral and ontologica l pac kage we call kinship. It woulJ be a startling example of what someone once Jelightfully called 'RUP'-Residual Unresolved Positivism-were we co fail (0 see th at our ideas about kinship me no simpl e tr uths about the world but affected by our changing assumptions. I, is nOt an issue of how (0 compa re fac ts but of how, using one cogniti ve model, to talk about others. As the issues are complex, Ie< me spell Out some of the poi nts mos t relev ant to a discussion of ki ns hip. In its easiest formula tion the prob lem of raJica l translation (between unrelateJ languages where there has been little, or no, cultural contac t, see Q lIine 1960:28 R) is an extreme example of the hermeneu ti c issue of how t(.) interpret texts or sratemenrs wirhin one culture. For 'the speci al problem of inrerpret;Jri on is th at it very often ap/Jears to be necessary anJ ine vitabl e when in fac t it never is. T his appearance of inevimbi li ty is a phantas m raised by rhe circlilari[y of the interpretive process' (Hitsch 1967: 164). The reason is that one is dea ling wi,h a system of signs which 'must be consuueJ before jt furnishes connrmarion of an interpretarion. Furrhermore, the manner in which th e signs are construeJ is pardy predetermined by the interpretation itself' (Hi rsc h 1967: 165). In rad ica l translation rhe ethnographer Is Tltere Kinship in Bali! faces the trap of se l f~confirmabil ity of inrerpretations with metaphysica l knobs on.

How to predict the evolution of ecosystems is one of the numerous questions asked of ecologists by managers and politicians. To answer this we will need to give a scientific definition to concepts like sustainability, integrity, resilience and ecosystem health. This is not an easy task, as modern ecosystem theory exemplifies. Ecosystems show a high degree of complexity, based upon a high number of compartments, interactions and regulations. The last two decades have offered proposals for interpretation of ecosystems within a framework of thermodynamics. The entrance point of such an understanding of ecosystems was delivered more than 50 years ago through Schrödinger’s and Prigogine’s interpretations of living systems as “negentropy feeders” and “dissipative structures”, respectively. Combining these views from the far from equilibrium thermodynamics to traditional classical thermodynamics, and ecology is obviously not going to happen without problems. There seems little reason to do...

The persistence of ecological systems in changing environments requires energy, materials, and information. Although the importance of information to ecological function has been widely recognized, the fundamental principles of ecological science as commonly expressed do not reflect this central role of information processing. We articulate five fundamental principles of ecology that integrate information with energy and material constraints across scales of organization in living systems. We show how these principles outline new theoretical and empirical research challenges, and offer one novel attempt to incorporate them in a theoretical model. To provide adequate background for the principles, we review major concepts and identify common themes and key differences in information theories spanning physics, biology and semiotics. We structured our review around a series of questions about the role information may play in ecological systems: (i) what is information? (ii) how is information related to uncertainty? (iii) what is information processing? (iv) does information processing link ecological systems across scales? We highlight two aspects of information that capture its dual roles: syntactic information defining the processes that encode, filter and process information stored in biological structure and semiotic information associated with structures and their context. We argue that the principles of information in living systems promote a unified approach to understanding living systems in terms of first principles of biology and physics, and promote much needed theoretical and empirical advances in ecological research to unify understanding across disciplines and scales.

L'articolo indaga la possibilità di adottare indicatori e metodi analitici caratteristici dell'ecologia dei sistemi viventi per comprendere diversi fenomeni di metabolismo territoriale e orientare processi di sostenibilità profonda nella trasformazione dei tessuti urbani, a supporto di un modello economico circolare e autosostenibile. L'interpretazione del tema orizzontale/verticale è duplice: da un lato, il sostrato materiale del processo progettuale è osservato da un livello elevato, tale da consentire di coglierne connessioni sistemiche necessarie alla scala ecoambientale; dall'altro, la costruzione di reti interattive promuove l'emergere di nuove configurazioni nei processi decisionali. L'approfondimento degli strumenti analitico-operativi dei processi metabolici naturali associa la scelta della configurazione fisica orizzontale o verticale al conseguimento del seguente obiettivo: massimizzare il lavoro ottenibile (ovvero il servizio prestato per abitare, alimentarsi e muoversi) a parità di energia solare utilizzata: la principale legge che regola l'evoluzione degli ecosistemi naturali terrestri (Odum, 1996) e rappresenta il criterio fondamentale per definire la sostenibilità profonda nei processi di pianificazione/progettazione/produzione dell'ambiente costruito (Daly, 2008).

Степень математизации физики чрезвычайно высока, и это позволяет понимать законы природы путем анализа математических структур, которые их описывают. Но это верно лишь для физических законов. Напротив, степень математизации биологии весьма невелика, и все попытки ее математизации ограничиваются применением тех математических методов, которые употребляются для описания физических систем. Такой подход, возможно, ошибочен, поскольку биологическим системам придаются атрибуты, которых у них нет. Некоторые думают, что нам нужны новые математические методы, которые соответствуют нуждам биологии и не известны физике. Однако, рассматривая специфику биологических систем, мы должны говорить об их алгоритмичности, а не об их математичности. В качестве примеров алгоритмического подхода к биологическим системам можно указать на так называемые индивидуальные модели (individual-based models), которые в экологии употребляются для описания динамики популяций, или на фрактальные модели, описывающие геометрическую структуру растений. Ключевые слова: математизация физики, математизация биологии, алгоритмичность биологии, индивидуальные модели, фрактальные модели