Principles of Ecology, Two Frameworks

Following are two different frameworks for analyzing the fundamental principles of ecological systems.

 

Six Principles of Ecology

By Peter Donaldson

These six principles are at play in every ecosystem in the world. What’s an ecosystem? A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms and their environment. Ecosystems are nested at many scales from a small pond to the entire planet. The human species, just like any other species, is entirely interdependent with the ecosystems in which we live. The difference is, we know it.

Speciation

Living organisms develop in populations of unique individuals that are capable of reproducing viable offspring.

Diversity

Individual species have evolved unique differences from one another. This is nature’s way of developing and testing new and more successful forms of life. Without diversity in an ecosystem there is less opportunity for invention, less flexibility to adapt to changes in the environment. Diversity strengthens the entire system.

Habitat

Individual species have adapted to the conditions of unique niches, territories, watersheds, and climates. A habitat is shaped by soil, water and air, and by the living organisms themselves. An ecosystem is host to a great diversity of species uniquely adapted to overlapping and interdependent habitats.

Adaptation

Individual species change or adapt physical features and behaviors to better survive changing conditions in their habitat. Features and behaviors that are successful allow a particular organism to survive and reproduce. Features and behaviors that are not successful means that the organism will not live to reproduce and so will not pass on its genetic information, a failed experiment. Just as changes in habitat force adaptations in individual species, these same adaptations in species will create new changes in habitat, so little by little the whole system is evolving interdependently.

Interdependence

All of life is a web of interactions and evolving adaptations between species and their habitats. It is a beautiful and complex choreography of self-organizing relationships. No species, including humans, can survive separate from this web.

Evolution

The interdependent adaptations between species and habitat create biological change over time. New forms of life are always emerging, converging and diverging, pursuing the greatest health and flexibility for the entire system. What is so magnificent about the human species is that our special adaptations allow us to consciously observe the very process we are embedded in. It’s as if the entire universe has conspired to create such a being just to look back up on itself . And perhaps forward as well.

 

Principles of Ecology

From the Center for Ecoliteracy, Fritjof Capra

Core concepts in ecology that describe the patterns and processes by which nature sustains life.

NETWORKS: All members of an ecological community are interconnected in a vast and intricate network of relationships, the web of life. They derive their essential properties and, in fact, their very existence from these relationships.

NESTED SYSTEMS: Throughout nature we find multi-leveled structures of systems nesting within systems. Each of these forms an integrated whole within a boundary while at the same time being a part of a larger whole.

CYCLES: The interactions among the members of an ecological community involve the exchange of energy and resources in continual cycles. The cycles in an ecosystem intersect with larger cycles in the bioregion and in the planetary biosphere.

FLOWS: All organisms are open systems, which means that they need to feed on a continual flow of energy and resources to stay alive. The constant flow of solar energy sustains life and drives all ecological cycles.

DEVELOPMENT: The unfolding of life, manifesting as development and learning at the individual level and as evolution at the species level, involves an interplay of creativity and mutual adaptation in which organisms and environment coevolve.

DYNAMIC BALANCE: All ecological cycles act as feedback loops, so that the ecological community regulates and organizes itself, maintaining a state of dynamic balance characterized by continual fluctuations.