Ecological analysis of CO₂ in an ecosystem

Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, taking a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems.^{[citation needed]} Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is a complex system exhibiting emergent properties. 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 and develops other macroscopic descriptions of complex systems.

Overview[link]

Systems ecology seeks a holistic 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:^[1]

• 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, characteriszing 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.^[2]

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 - sometimes considered the father of ecosystems ecology. In this approach the principles of energetics constitute ecosystem principles. Reasoning by formal analogy 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 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, just as the electronic engineer would do.

Summary of relationships in systems ecology[link]

The image to the right is a summary of relationships between the storage quantity Q, the forces X, N, and the outflows J, resistance R, conductivity L, time constants T, and transfer coefficients k of ecosystem metabolism. The transfer coefficient "k", is also known as the metabolic constant.

"All these relationships are automatically implied by the energy circuit symbol ".^[3]

Closely related fields[link]

Deep Ecology[link]

Deep Ecology is a school of philosophy pioneered by the Norwegian Philosopher, Gandhian scholar and environmental activist Arne Naess. Created in 1973 at an environmental conference in Budapest, it argues that the school of environmental management is anthropocentric, that the natural environment is not only "more complex than we imagine, it is more complex than we can imagine"^[4]. Concerned with the development of an "ecological self", which views the human ego as a part of a living system, rather than apart from such systems, "Experiential Deep Ecology" of Joanna Macy, John Seed and others, seeks to transcend altruism with a deeper self-interest, based upon biospherical equality beyond human chauvinism.

Earth systems engineering and management[link]

Earth systems engineering and management (ESEM) is a discipline used to analyze, design, engineer and manage complex environmental systems. It entails a wide range of subject areas including anthropology, engineering, environmental science, 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[link]

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of academic research that addresses the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and natural ecosystems. 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 and ecology. An important motivation for the emergence of ecological economics has been criticism on the assumptions and approaches of traditional (mainstream) environmental and resource economics.

Ecological energetics[link]

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

Ecological humanities aims to bridge the divides between the sciences and the humanities, and between Western, Eastern and Indigenous 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 laws and to see humanity as part of a larger living system.

Ecosystem ecology[link]

Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems and their interactions within an ecosystem framework. This science examines how ecosystems work and relates this to their components such as chemicals, bedrock, soil, plants, and animals. 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[link]

Industrial ecology is the study of industrial processes 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.

See also[link]

Systems science portal

References[link]

1. ^ R.L. Kitching 1983, p.9.
2. ^ (Kitching 1983, p.11)
3. ^ H.T.Odum 1994, p. 26.
4. ^ A statement attributed to British biologist J.B.S. Haldane

Literature[link]

• Gregory Bateson, 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.
• R.L. Kitching, Systems ecology, University of Queensland Press, 1983.
• Howard T. Odum, Systems Ecology: An Introduction, Wiley-Interscience, 1983.
• Howard T. Odum, 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.

External links[link]

Organisations

• Systems Ecology Department at the Stockholm University.
• Systems Ecology Department at the University of Amsterdam.
• Systems ecology Lab at SUNY-ESF.
• Systems Ecology program at the University of Florida
• Terrestrial Systems Ecology of ETH Zurich.

v t e Modelling ecosystems – trophic components General Abiotic component Abiotic stress Behaviour Biogeochemical cycle Biomass Biotic component Biotic stress Carrying capacity Competition Ecosystem Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem model Keystone species List of feeding behaviours Metabolic theory of ecology Productivity Producers Autotrophs Chemosynthesis Chemotrophs Foundation species Mixotrophs Myco-heterotrophy Mycotroph Organotrophs Photoheterotrophs Photosynthesis Photosynthetic efficiency Phototrophs Primary nutritional groups Primary production Consumers Apex predator Bacterivore Carnivores Chemoorganotroph Foraging Generalist and specialist species Intraguild predation Herbivores Heterotroph Heterotrophic nutrition Insectivore Mesopredator release hypothesis Omnivores Optimal foraging theory Predation Prey switching Decomposers Chemoorganoheterotrophy Decomposition Detritivores Detritus Microorganisms Archaea Bacteriophage Environmental microbiology Lithoautotroph Lithotrophy Microbial cooperation Microbial ecology Microbial food web Microbial intelligence Microbial loop Microbial mat Microbial metabolism Phage ecology Food webs Biomagnification Ecological efficiency Ecological pyramid Energy flow Food chain Trophic level Example webs Cold seeps Hydrothermal vents Intertidal Kelp forests Lakes North Pacific Subtropical Gyre Rivers San Francisco Estuary Soil Tidal pool Processes Ascendency Bioaccumulation Cascade effect Climax community Competitive exclusion principle Consumer-resource systems Copiotrophs Dominance Ecological network Ecological succession Energy quality Energy Systems Language f-ratio Feed conversion ratio Feeding frenzy Mesotrophic soil Nutrient cycle Oligotroph Paradox of the plankton Trophic cascade Trophic mutualism Trophic state index Defense/counter Animal coloration Antipredator adaptations Camouflage Herbivore adaptations to plant defense Mimicry Plant defense against herbivory Predator avoidance in schooling fish

v t e Modelling ecosystems – other components Population ecology Abundance Allee effect Depensation Ecological yield Effective population size Intraspecific competition Logistic function Malthusian growth model Maximum sustainable yield Overpopulation in wild animals Overexploitation Population cycle Population dynamics Population modeling Population size Predator–prey equations Recruitment Resilience Small population size Stability Species Biodiversity Density-dependent inhibition Ecological effects of biodiversity Ecological extinction Endemic species Flagship species Gradient analysis Indicator species Introduced species Invasive species Latitudinal gradients in species diversity Minimum viable population Neutral theory Occupancy-abundance relationship Population viability analysis Priority effect Rapoport's rule Relative abundance distribution Relative species abundance Species diversity Species homogeneity Species richness Species distribution Species-area curve Umbrella species Species interaction Antibiosis Biological interaction Commensalism Community ecology Ecological facilitation Interspecific competition Mutualism Storage effect Spatial ecology Biogeography Cross-boundary subsidy Ecocline Ecotone Ecotype Disturbance Edge effect Foster's rule Habitat fragmentation Ideal free distribution Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis Island biogeography Landscape ecology Landscape epidemiology Landscape limnology Metapopulation Patch dynamics r/K selection theory Source–sink dynamics Niche Ecological niche Ecological trap Ecosystem engineer Environmental niche modelling Guild Habitat Limiting similarity Niche apportionment models Niche construction Niche differentiation Other networks Assembly rules Bateman's principle Bioluminescence Ecological collapse Ecological debt Ecological deficit Ecological energetics Ecological indicator Ecological threshold Ecosystem diversity Emergence Extinction debt Kleiber's law Liebig's law of the minimum Marginal value theorem Thorson's rule Xerosere Other Allometry Alternative stable state Balance of nature Biological data visualization Constructal theory Ecocline Ecological economics Ecological footprint Ecological forecasting Ecological humanities Ecological stoichiometry Ecopath Ecosystem based fisheries Endolith Evolutionary ecology Functional ecology Industrial ecology Macroecology Microecosystem Natural environment Systems ecology Theoretical ecology List of ecology topics

Gil Friend (born March 4, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York) is a business consultant, author, system ecologist, and strategist in sustainable business, clean technology, and communications. He is widely considered one of the founders of the sustainability movement, and was named by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals to their first Sustainability Hall of Fame,^[1] acknowledging “those people that have contributed the most to the emerging field of sustainability” (along with Ray Anderson, Amory Lovins, Karl-Henrik Robert and Bob Willard).

Education[link]

Friend holds an M.S. degree in Systems Ecology from Antioch University, has a black belt in Aikido, and is a seasoned practitioner of “The Natural Step” environmental management system.^[2]

Writing[link]

He is coauthor of "Biofuels Development and Soil Productivity" (1982); and has contributed chapters to several books, including "Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century", "Sustainable Enterprise Report", "Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook", "Sustainable Food Systems", and "Stepping Stones".

From 1992 through 1998, he wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate entitled The New Bottom Line, focusing on business and the environment.

In 2010, Friend authored the book, "The Truth About Green Business" (FT Press, providing a business handbook for sustainability strategy and implementation.

Friend also maintains a blog on these subjects, Strategic Sustainability and contributes to Worldchanging, GreenBiz and other blogs on sustainability and business issues.

Other publications (partial list):

• “The Natural Step”, in Stone Soup for the World, Conari, 1998
• Mining and Sustainability: Strategic Horizons, Natural Logic, 1998
• Building an Environmental Economy. with Ernest A. Lowe. City of Berkeley, 1993
• Applied Industrial Ecology (contributor), Change Management Center, 1993
• "Working Together: Community Self-Reliance in California," State of California, 1981
• "Biofuels Development and Soil Productivity," Office of Planning & Research, State of California, 1982;
• "Closing the Circle: Waste Management, Nutrient Cycles and Regional Food Systems,” Mazingira, 1978
• "Energy, Agriculture and Neighborhood Food Systems," with David J. Morris. Institute for Local Self Reliance, Washington DC. 1974
• "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science". Colonial Times, Washington DC. 1973

Business[link]

In 1999, he founded Natural Logic Inc., a strategic advisory firm helping companies design, implement and measure profitable sustainability strategies. Friend currently holds the position of President and CEO.

He was a founding board member of the Sustainable Business Alliance, and currently serves on the boards of directors of Open Data Registry, Inc. and Ecological Building Network ^[3], and the advisory boards of CleanFish, WattBot, Green World Campaign and the Green Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Clean Tech Advisory Council, and was named one of the Bay Area’s “Top 25 movers and shakers in CleanTech” in 2009 and 2010.

Friend served in the California Governor’s Office, developing early sustainability policies and programs. He was a founding board member of Internet pioneer Institute for Global Communications, founder and Executive Director of Foundation for the Arts of Peace, and cofounder and codirector of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a leading urban ecology and economic development “think-and-do tank,” where he pioneered the current “green roof” trend more than 35 years ago.

In 2006, Tomorrow Magazine called him “One of the country’s leading environmental management consultants — a real expert who combines theoretical sophistication with hands-on, in-the-trenches know-how.”

References[link]

1. ^ ISSP, ISSP Hall of Fame ISSP Hall of Fame, 2011.
2. ^ Gil Friend, Gil Friend Bio Natural Logic Team Bios, 2011.
3. ^ Ecological Building Network, Ecological Building Network Board of Directors

External links[link]

• Company Website
• Strategic Sustainability Blog
• Worldchanging Bio
• Twitter

Elinor Ostrom

New institutional economics
Born	(1933-08-07) August 7, 1933 (age 78) Los Angeles, California, USA
Nationality	United States
Institution	Indiana University, Arizona State University
Field	Public economics Public choice theory
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Influences	Friedrich von Hayek James M. Buchanan
Awards	John J. Carty Award (2004) Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2009) elected to United States National Academy of Sciences (2001)[1]
Information at IDEAS/RePEc

Elinor Ostrom (née Awan; born August 7, 1933) is an American political economist.^[2] She was awarded the 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."^[3] She was the first, and to date, the only woman to win the prize in this category. Her work is associated with the new institutional economics and the resurgence of political economy.^[4]

Ostrom lives in Bloomington, IN, and is on the faculty of both Indiana University and Arizona State University. She holds a Distinguished Professor at Indiana University and is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University in Bloomington, as well as Research Professor and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University in Tempe. Ostrom also serves as a lead researcher for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP), managed by Virginia Tech and funded by USAID.^[5]

Childhood[link]

Ostrom was born on August 7, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Adrian and Leah. Her father was Jewish, while her mother was Protestant. She attended a Protestant church and often spent weekends staying with her aunt, who kept a kosher home.^[6]

Education[link]

Ostrom graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1951 and then received a B.A. (with honors) in political science at UCLA in 1954. She was awarded an M.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1965, both from UCLA Department of Political Science.

Career[link]

In 1973, she co-founded A Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis^[7] at Indiana University with her husband, Vincent Ostrom. Examining the use of collective action, trust, and cooperation in the management of common pool resources, her institutional approach to public policy, known as the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework, has been considered sufficiently distinct to be thought of as a separate school of public choice theory.^[8] She has authored many books in the fields of organizational theory, political science, and public administration.

Research[link]

Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources (CPR). In particular, Ostrom's work emphasizes how humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable resource yields. Common pool resources include many forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems. She conducted her field studies on the management of pasture by locals in Africa and irrigation systems management in villages of western Nepal (e.g. Dang). Ostrom's work has considered how societies have developed diverse institutional arrangements for managing natural resources and avoiding ecosystem collapse in many cases, even though some arrangements have failed to prevent resource exhaustion. Her current work emphasizes the multifaceted nature of human–ecosystem interaction and argues against any singular "panacea" for individual social-ecological system problems.^[9]

Design Principles for CPR Institutions[link]

Ostrom identifies eight "design principles" of stable local common pool resource management:^[10]

1. Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external un-entitled parties);
2. Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources that are adapted to local conditions;
3. Collective-choice arrangements that allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process;
4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators;
5. A scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules;
6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are cheap and of easy access;
7. Self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level authorities;
8. In the case of larger common-pool resources,organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local CPRs at the base level.

The above principles have since been slightly modified and expanded to include a number of additional variables believed to affect the success of self-organized governance systems, including effective communication, internal trust and reciprocity, and the nature of the resource system as a whole.^[11]

Ostrom and her many co-researchers have more recently developed a comprehensive "Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework", within which much of the still-evolving theory of common-pool resources and collective self-governance is now located.^[12]

Work with Environmental Protection[link]

"Ostrom cautions against single governmental units at global level to solve the collective action problem of coordinating work against environmental destruction. Partly, this is due to their complexity, and partly to the diversity of actors involved. Her proposal is that of a polycentric approach, where key management decisions should be made as close to the scene of events and the actors involved as possible."^[13]

Awards[link]

Ostrom is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences^[1] and past president of the American Political Science Association and the Public Choice Society. In 1999 she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Ostrom was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 2004,^[14] and in 2005 received the James Madison Award by the American Political Science Association. In 2008, she received the William H. Riker Prize in political science, and became the first woman to do so. In 2009, she received the Tisch Civic Engagement Research Prize from the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. In 2010, Utne Reader magazine included Ostrom as one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."^[15] She was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2012.

The International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) awarded its Honorary Fellowship to her in 2002.

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel[link]

Telephone interview with Elinor Ostrom

In 2009, Ostrom became the first woman to receive the prestigious Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance," saying her work had demonstrated how common property could be successfully managed by groups using it. Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson shared the 10-million Swedish kronor (£910,000; $1.44 m) prize for their separate work in economic governance.^[16]

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Ostrom's 'research brought this topic from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention', "by showing how common resources—forests, fisheries, oil fields or grazing lands, can be managed successfully by the people who use them, rather than by governments or private companies". Ostrom's work in this regard challenged conventional wisdom, showing that common resources can be successfully managed without government regulation or privatization.^[17]

Notable publications[link]

• Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action Ostrom, Elinor, Cambridge University Press, 1990
• Institutional Incentives and Sustainable Development: Infrastructure Policies in Perspective Ostrom, Elinor, and Schroeder, Larry, and Wynne, Susan, Oxford: Westview Press, 1993
• Rules, Games, and Common Pool Resources Ostrom, Elinor, and Gardner, Roy, and Walker, James, Editors, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1994
• with Crawford, Sue E. S., “A Grammar of Institutions.” American Political Science Review 89, no.3 (September 1995): 582–600.
• A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action: Presidential Address, American Political Science Association, 1997. Ostrom, Elinor. The American Political Science Review 92(1): 1–22. 1998
• Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons for Experimental Research, Volume VI in the Russell Sage Foundation Series on Trust, Elinor Ostrom and James Walker, Editors, Russell Sage Foundation, 2003
• Understanding Institutional Diversity Ostrom, Elinor, Princeton, Princeton University Press. 2005.
• Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice Ostrom, Elinor and Hess, Charlotte, Editors, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.
• Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies, edited with Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis and Ravi Kanbur (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006; paperback published in 2007)

See also[link]

• Coproduction of public services by service users and communities

References[link]

• Aligica, Paul Dragos; Boettke, Peter (2009). Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-77820-6. 
• Ostrom, Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. "Rethinking Institutional Analysis: Interviews with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom." By Paul Dragos Aligica. Interview, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 2003.

External links[link]

• On Collaboration Elinor Ostrom speaks on BBC The Forum

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elinor Ostrom

• The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University
  • Elinor Ostrom Curriculum Vitae
• Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University
• Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems, 2009 lecture at NobelPrize.org
• Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc
• Works by or about Elinor Ostrom in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Elinor Ostrom news, photos & videos from the The Herald-Times Bloomington, Indiana
• Profile at The international Institute of Social Studies (ISS)
• Annual Reviews Conversations Interview with Elinor Ostrom 2011 (Video)