Ecological system

From NECSIWiki

An ecological system is a foremost example of an ecosystem and, more generally, ecological complexity. As such it is difficult to define where the elements of the system are contained, i.e. the boundaries of the system and those of the environment.

As an example consider a lake in rural Africa. One may find that there are several aquatic species inhabiting the lake, such as fish, plants and micro-organisms like some forms of algae. These themselves will most likely be interacting in complex ways depending on environmental factors such as the intensity and frequency of sunlight and the more usual predator-prey models. However, the lake is not independent of the surrounding landscape. Hence one may find that particles are entering the water which are affecting aspects of the lake ecosystem, such as the ability of the algae to photosynthesise.

As the ecosystem is interrelated this effect could be propagated through the system. For example, small fish which feed on algae may be less common leading to lack of prey for large predator fish.

So, what may be considered environmental factors (such as destruction of forests surrounding alake leading to increased soil erosion in turn leading to more soil entering the lake) could be having a combinatorial effect upon the ecosystem of the lake itself. Thus, as ever, one has to be careful where one defines the boundaries of the system to be. Indeed, in these discussions we have said nothing of the cause of the deforestation which could be as 'removed' as the supply of cheap timber to China for the creation of flat-pack furniture to eventually appear in a European market.

Consider another example,the increasing of temperature in Baltic sea causes the Phytoplankton blooming. This phenomenon perturbs the ecosystem by taking most nutritions from other species, making them starve and finally causing their dead such as the bleaching of coral.

The conclusion is that ecosystems are often said to be 'delicate' in that one small adjustment, particularly an 'unnatural' one, i.e. one which the ecosystem has not evolved to be resilient to, can have untold effects in the network of interrelationships throughout the plethora of interacting systems. Hence, a lot of environmentalists now consider the 'bigger picture' in the form of Sustainable Development.