Systems ecology is an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

field of

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

, a subset of

Earth system science Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"—atmos ...

, that takes a

holistic Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...

approach to the study of ecological systems, especially

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of

general systems theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is a

complex system A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication ...

exhibiting

emergent properties In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

. Systems ecology focuses on interactions and transactions within and between biological and ecological systems, and is especially concerned with the way the functioning of ecosystems can be influenced by human interventions. It uses and extends concepts from

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...

and develops other macroscopic descriptions of complex systems.

Overview

Systems ecology seeks a

view of the interactions and transactions within and between biological and ecological systems. Systems ecologists realise that the function of any ecosystem can be influenced by human economics in fundamental ways. They have therefore taken an additional transdisciplinary step by including economics in the consideration of ecological-economic systems. In the words of

R.L. Kitching RL, Rl or rl may refer to: In arts and entertainment * Radio Liberty, US broadcaster * ''Rocket League'', a video game Businesses and organizations * Polo Ralph Lauren (NYSE stock ticker symbol) * Réseau Luxembourgeois des Amateurs d'Ondes Court ...

: * ''Systems ecology can be defined as the approach to the study of ecology of organisms using the techniques and philosophy of systems analysis: that is, the methods and tools developed, largely in engineering, for studying, characterizing and making predictions about complex entities, that is, systems.. * ''In any study of an ecological system, an essential early procedure is to draw a diagram of the system of interest ... diagrams indicate the system's boundaries by a solid line. Within these boundaries, series of components are isolated which have been chosen to represent that portion of the world in which the systems analyst is interested ... If there are no connections across the systems' boundaries with the surrounding systems environments, the systems are described as ''closed''. Ecological work, however, deals almost exclusively with ''open'' systems.'' As a mode of scientific enquiry, a central feature of Systems Ecology is the general application of the principles of energetics to all systems at any scale. Perhaps the most notable proponent of this view was

Howard T. Odum Howard Thomas Odum (September 1, 1924 – September 11, 2002), usually cited as H. T. Odum, was an American ecologist. He is known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology, and for his provocative proposals for additional laws of thermod ...

- sometimes considered the father of ecosystems ecology. In this approach the principles of energetics constitute ecosystem principles. Reasoning by

formal analogy Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal atti ...

from one system to another enables the Systems Ecologist to see principles functioning in an analogous manner across system-scale boundaries. H.T. Odum commonly used the

Energy Systems Language The Energy Systems Language, also referred to as Energese, Energy Circuit Language, or Generic Systems Symbols, is a modelling language used for composing energy flow diagrams in the field of systems ecology. It was developed by Howard T. Odum ...

as a tool for making systems diagrams and flow charts. The fourth of these principles, the principle of maximum power efficiency, takes central place in the analysis and synthesis of ecological systems. The fourth principle suggests that the most evolutionarily advantageous system function occurs when the environmental load matches the internal resistance of the system. The further the environmental load is from matching the internal resistance, the further the system is away from its sustainable steady state. Therefore, the systems ecologist engages in a task of resistance and impedance matching in

ecological engineering Ecological engineering uses ecology and engineering to predict, design, construct or restore, and manage ecosystems that integrate "human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both".W.J. Mitsch & S.E. Jorgensen (1989), "Introdu ...

, just as the

electronic engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

would do.

Closely related fields

Deep ecology

Deep ecology is an ideology whose metaphysical underpinnings are deeply concerned with the science of ecology. The term was coined by Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher,

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

an scholar, and

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advo ...

. He argues that the prevailing approach to environmental management is

anthropocentric Anthropocentrism (; ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. ...

, and that the natural environment is not only "more complex than we imagine, it is more complex than we can imagine."A statement attributed to British biologist

J.B.S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

Naess formulated deep ecology in 1973 at an environmental conference in Budapest.

Joanna Macy Joanna Rogers Macy (born May 2, 1929) is an environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. She is the author of twelve books. She was married to the late Francis Underhill Macy, the activist ...

John Seed ''Far Cry 5'' is a 2018 first-person shooter, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the successor to 2014's ''Far Cry 4'', and the fifth main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series. Set in Hope Count ...

, and others developed Naess' thesis into a branch they called ''experiential deep ecology''. Their efforts were motivated by a need they perceived for the development of an "

ecological self In environmental philosophy, ecological self is central to the school of ''Experiential Deep Ecology'', which, based on the work of Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, argues that through the process of self-actualisation, one transcends the notion ...

", which views the human ego as an integrated part of a living system that encompasses the individual. They sought to transcend

altruism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...

with a deeper self-interest based on biospherical equality beyond human chauvinism.

Earth systems engineering and management

Earth systems engineering and management (ESEM) is a discipline used to analyze, design, engineer and manage

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

s. It entails a wide range of subject areas including anthropology, engineering,

environmental science Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biology, and geography (including ecology, chemistry, plant science, zoology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, soil science, geology and physical geograp ...

, ethics and philosophy. At its core, ESEM looks to "rationally design and manage coupled human-natural systems in a highly integrated and ethical fashion"

Ecological economics

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of academic research that addresses the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and natural

s. Ecological economics brings together and connects different disciplines, within the natural and social sciences but especially between these broad areas. As the name suggests, the field is made up of researchers with a background in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

. An important motivation for the emergence of ecological economics has been criticism on the assumptions and approaches of traditional (mainstream)

environmental and resource economics ''Environmental and Resource Economics'' (''ERE'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering environmental economics Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subje ...

Ecological energetics

Ecological energetics is the quantitative study of the flow of energy through ecological systems. It aims to uncover the

principles A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, such as the la ...

which describe the propensity of such energy flows through the trophic, or 'energy availing' levels of ecological networks. In systems ecology the principles of ecosystem energy flows or "ecosystem laws" (i.e. principles of ecological energetics) are considered formally analogous to the principles of energetics.

Ecological humanities

Ecological humanities aims to bridge the divides between the sciences and the humanities, and between

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

and

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

ways of knowing nature. Like ecocentric political theory, the ecological humanities are characterised by a connectivity ontology and a commitment to two fundamental axioms relating to the need to submit to

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

laws and to see humanity as part of a larger living system.

Ecosystem ecology

Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of biotic and

abiotic In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and the phenomena associated with them under ...

components of

s and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components such as

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s, and

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s. Ecosystem ecology examines physical and biological structure and examines how these ecosystem characteristics interact. The relationship between systems ecology and ecosystem ecology is complex. Much of systems ecology can be considered a subset of ecosystem ecology. Ecosystem ecology also utilizes methods that have little to do with the holistic approach of systems ecology. However, systems ecology more actively considers external influences such as economics that usually fall outside the bounds of ecosystem ecology. Whereas ecosystem ecology can be defined as the scientific study of ecosystems, systems ecology is more of a particular approach to the study of ecological systems and phenomena that interact with these systems.

Industrial ecology

Industrial ecology is the study of

industrial process Industrial processes are procedures involving chemical, physical, electrical or mechanical steps to aid in the manufacturing of an item or items, usually carried out on a very large scale. Industrial processes are the key components of heavy ind ...

es as linear (open loop) systems, in which resource and capital investments move through the system to become waste, to a closed loop system where wastes become inputs for new processes.

References

Bibliography

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

, ''Steps to an Ecology of Mind'', 2000. * Kenneth Edmund Ferguson, ''Systems Analysis in Ecology'', WATT, 1966, 276 pp. * Efraim Halfon, ''Theoretical Systems Ecology: Advances and Case Studies'', 1979. * J. W. Haefner, ''Modeling Biological Systems: Principles and Applications'', London., UK, Chapman and Hall 1996, 473 pp. * Richard F Johnston, Peter W Frank, Charles Duncan Michener, ''Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics'', 1976, 307 pp. * Jorgensen, Sven E., "Introduction to Systems Ecology", CRC Press, 2012. * R.L. Kitching, ''Systems ecology'', University of Queensland Press, 1983. *

, ''Systems Ecology: An Introduction'', Wiley-Interscience, 1983. *

, ''Ecological and General Systems: An Introduction to Systems Ecology''. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO, 1994. * Friedrich Recknagel, ''Applied Systems Ecology: Approach and Case Studies in Aquatic Ecology'', 1989. * James. Sanderson & Larry D. Harris, ''Landscape Ecology: A Top-down Approach'', 2000, 246 pp. * Sheldon Smith, ''Human Systems Ecology: Studies in the Integration of Political Economy'', 1989. * Shugart, H.H., O’Neil, R.V. (Eds.) ''Systems Ecology'', Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc., 1979. * Van Dyne, George M., ''Ecosystems, Systems Ecology, and Systems Ecologists'', ORNL- 3975. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, pp. 1–40, 1966. * Patten, Bernard C. (editor), "Systems Analysis and Simulation in Ecology", Volume 1, Academic Press, 1971. * Patten, Bernard C. (editor), "Systems Analysis and Simulation in Ecology", Volume 2, Academic Press, 1972. * Patten, Bernard C. (editor), "Systems Analysis and Simulation in Ecology", Volume 3, Academic Press, 1975. * Patten, Bernard C. (editor), "Systems Analysis and Simulation in Ecology", Volume 4, Academic Press, 1976.

Ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...