Chapter 15

Sources and Uses

We consume energy in dozens of forms. Yet virtually all of the energy we use originates in the power of the atom. Nuclear reactions energize stars, including our sun. The energy we capture for use on Earth comes largely from the sun or from nuclear forces local to our own planet. Sunlight is by far the predominant source, and it contains a surprisingly large amount of energy. On average, even after passing through hundreds of kilometers of air on a clear day, solar radiation reaches Earth with more than enough energy in a single square meter to illuminate five 60-watt lightbulbs if all the sunlight could be captured and converted to electricity. The sun's energy warms the planet's surface, powering titanic transfers of heat and pressure in weather patterns and ocean currents. The resulting air currents drive wind turbines. Solar energy also evaporates water that falls as rain and builds up behind dams, where its motion is used to generate electricity via hydropower. Most Americans, however, use solar energy in its secondhand form: fossil fuels. When sunlight strikes a plant, some of the energy is trapped through photosynthesis and is stored in chemical bonds as the plant grows. We can recover that energy months or years later by burning wood, which breaks the bonds and releases energy as heat and light. More often, though, we use the stored energy in the much more concentrated forms that result when organic matter, after millions of years of geological and chemical activity underground, turns into fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, or natural gas. Either way, we're reclaiming the power of sunlight. The only other original source of energy on Earth's surface is found in more local nuclear reactions, where atoms of radioactive elements such as uranium split apart into smaller atoms and liberate energy in the process. Harnessed as heat, the released energy boils water, producing steam that turns turbines, thereby being converted to mechanical energy that generates electricity. Nuclear energy currently provides 20% of total electricity generation in the United States.3 Finally, the heat of Earth's molten interior, itself largely the result of the nuclear decay of radioactive elements, provides geothermal energy. At present, it is chiefly used in only a few places, such as California and Iceland, where proximity to high temperature geothermal fields makes it practical.[*]

The High Cost of Change

By the time energy is delivered to us in a usable form, it has typically undergone several conversions. Every time energy changes forms, some portion is lost. It doesn't disappear, of course. In nature, energy is always conserved. That is, there is exactly as much of it around after something happens as there was before. But with each change, some amount of the original energy turns into forms we don't want or can't use, typically as socalled waste heat that is so diffuse it can't be captured. Reducing the amount lost also known as increasing efficiency is as important to our energy future as finding new sources because gigantic amounts of energy are lost every minute of every day in conversions. Electricity is a

good example. By the time the energy content of electric power reaches the end user, it has taken many forms. Most commonly, the process begins when coal is burned in a power station. The chemical energy stored in the coal is liberated in combustion, generating heat that is used to produce steam. The steam turns a turbine, and that mechanical energy is used to turn a generator to produce the electricity. In the process, the original energy has taken on a series of four different identities and experienced four conversion losses. A typical coal-fired electrical plant might be 38% efficient, so a little more than one-third of the chemical energy content of the fuel is ultimately converted to usable electricity. In other words, as much as 62% of the original energy fails to find its way to the electrical grid. Once electricity leaves the plant, further losses occur during delivery. Finally, it reaches an incandescent lightbulb where it heats a thin wire filament until the metal glows, wasting still more energy as heat. The resulting light contains only about 2% of the energy content of the coal used to produce it. Swap that bulb for a compact fluorescent and the efficiency rises to around 5% better, but still a small fraction of the original.4

Example of energy lost during conversion and transmission. Imagine that the coal needed to illuminate an incandescent light bulb contains 100 units of energy when it enters the power plant. Only two units of that energy eventually light the bulb. The remaining 98 units are lost along the way, primarily as heat.
Another familiar form of conversion loss occurs in a vehicle's internal combustion engine. The chemical energy in the gasoline is converted to heat energy, which provides pressure on the pistons. That mechanical energy is then transferred to the wheels, increasing the vehicle's kinetic energy. Even with a host of modern improvements, current vehicles use only about 20% of the energy content of the fuel as power, with the rest wasted as heat. Electric motors typically have much higher efficiency ratings. But the rating only describes how much of the electricity input they turn into power; it does not reflect how much of the original, primary energy is lost in generating the electricity in the first place and then getting it to the motor.

Efficiencies of heat engines can be improved further, but only to a degree. Principles of physics place upper limits on how efficient they can be. Still, efforts are being made to capture more of the energy that is lost and to make use of it. This already happens in vehicles in the winter months, when heat loss is captured and used to warm the interior for passengers. In natural gas combined cycle, or NGCC, power plants, we now have technology that takes the waste heat from a natural gas turbine and uses it to power a steam turbine, resulting in a power plant that is as much as 60% efficient.5 Similar technologies are being developed for use in coal power plants. The energy sources that power our most indispensable devices often reflect convenience as much as efficiency. Energy can take many forms, but modern society prefers those that are easily produced, distributed, and stored. For example, American passenger cars are designed to hold enough onboard energy to travel 300 miles or so at a reasonable rate of speed. That's easy to do with the relatively high chemical energy content of gasoline or diesel fuel, despite the inefficiency of the engines. If a car is powered by electricity, however, the energy has to be stored in batteries that have a much lower energy density than gasoline does. To carry 300 miles' worth of energy, an electric car would need a lot of very heavy batteries. Furthermore, it is difficult to deliver the energy needed to power an electric car in an acceptably short time. Modern battery-powered cars charge at a rate roughly a thousand times slower than the rate of refueling with gasoline, meaning overnight charging is required to store enough energy for a day's worth of driving. For most Americans in the fast-paced 21st century, that's an unacceptably long time span. Measuring Energy Energy exists in many forms, so there are many ways to quantify it. Two of the most widely used for general purposes are the British Thermal Unit (BTU), which is a measure of energy content, and the watt, which is a measure of power, or how fast energy is used. One BTU is the amount of energy needed to raise a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. That's not a very large amount. One cubic foot of natural gas contains around 1,000 BTUs. A gallon of gasoline is about 124,000 BTUs, and a ton of coal represents about 20 million BTUs. Enormous quantities, such as total U.S. energy consumption in a year, are expressed in quads. One quad is a quadrillion that is, a million billion, or 10 BTUs. America consumed about 100 quads in 2006. One watt of power is equal to one ampere (a measure of electric current) moving at one volt (a measure of electrical force). Again, this is a fairly small unit. U.S. household electricity is provided at 120 volts. So a 60-watt lightbulb needs half an ampere of current to light up. For larger quantities, watts are usually expressed in multiples of a thousand (kilowatt), million (megawatt), or billion (gigawatt). A big coal, natural gas, or nuclear electrical plant can produce hundreds of megawatts; some of the largest generate one or more gigawatts. A typical wind turbine has a one megawatt rating, and the largest are now four megawatts when turning. An average U.S. household consumes electricity at the rate of a little more than one kilowatt, for an annual total of about 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kilowatt-hours equal power multiplied by time).
6 15

Energy and the Individual

Energy trade-offs and decisions permeate society, directly affecting everyday quality of life in many ways. Some effects may be most noticeable at home or at least in household energy bills due to the rising costs of heating oil

and natural gas. Residential energy use accounts for 21% of total U.S. consumption, and about one-third of that goes into space heating, with the rest devoted, in decreasing proportions, to appliances, water heating, and airconditioning. So our personal preferences are intimately tied to, and immediately affect, the nation's overall energy budget.

Percentage of energy consumed by each economic sector in the United States in 2006.*7
* Percentages do not sum to 100% due to independent rounding.

Energy usage in the U.S. residential sector in 2006.8

Our individual automotive and public-transit choices also have a substantial impact, because transportation takes up 28% of all U.S. energy consumption (and about 70% of all petroleum use). Even the 50% of total U.S. energy consumption that goes to commercial and industrial uses affects every single citizen personally through the cost of goods and services, the quality of manufactured products, the strength of the economy, and the availability of jobs.

The condition of the enviro nment also holds consequences for all of us. Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere has risen about 40% since the beginning of the industrial revolution from 270 parts per million (ppm) to 380 ppm and contributes to global warming and ensuing climate change.9 At present, the United States emits approximately one-fourth of the world's greenhouse gases,10 and the nation's CO2 emissions are projected to rise from about 5.9 billion metric tons in 2006 to 7.4 billion metric tons in 2030, assuming no changes to the control of carbon emissions.11 Of course this is not just a national concern. Worldwide, CO2 emissions are projected to increase substantially, primarily as a result of increased development in China and India. Future decisions about whether and how to limit greenhouse gas emissions will affect us all.

CO2 emissions by U.S. economic sector and energy source in 2005.12

Before we can consider ways to improve our energy situation we must first understand the resources we currently depend on, as well as the pros and cons of using each one.
[*] One exception to the solar and local nuclear origins of Earth's energy promises only an exceedingly small contribution to our total energy picture at present: Some engineers are exploring methods for capturing energy from ocean tides, thus tapping into a gravitational source of energy.

Next: Supply and Demand

Introduction | Sources and Uses | Supply and Demand | Improving Efficiency | Emerging Technologies | Looking Ahead | References and Credits 2008 by the National Academy
Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace [1] fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels. The term "alternative" presupposes a set of undesirable energy technologies against which "alternative energies" are contrasted. As such, the list of energy technologies excluded is an indicator of which problems the alternative technologies are intended to address. Controversies regarding dominant sources of energy and their alternatives have a long history. The nature of what was

regarded alternative energy sources has changed considerably over time, and today, because of the variety of energy choices and differing goals of their advocates, defining some energy types as "alternative" is highly controversial. In a general sense in contemporary society, alternative energy is that which is produced without the undesirable consequences of the burning of fossil fuels, such as high carbon dioxideemissions, which is considered to be the major contributing factor of global warming according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sometimes, this less comprehensive meaning of "alternative energy" [2] excludes nuclear energy (e.g. as defined in the Michigan Next Energy Authority Act of 2002).
Contents
[hide]

1 Definitions 2 History

o o o o

2.1 Coal as an alternative to wood 2.2 Petroleum as an alternative to whale oil 2.3 Alcohol as an alternative to fossil fuels 2.4 Coal gasification as an alternative to petroleum

3 Most common types of alternative energy

o o o o o

3.1 Solar energy 3.2 Wind energy 3.3 Geothermal energy 3.4 Biofuel and ethanol 3.5 Hydrogen

4 Renewable energy vs non-renewable energy

4.1 Ecologically friendly alternatives

5 Relatively new concepts for alternative energy

o o

5.1 Algae fuel 5.2 Biomass briquettes

o o

5.2.1 Biogas digestion

5.3 Biological Hydrogen Production 5.4 Floating wind farms

6 Investing in alternative energy

6.1 Alternative energy in transportation

7 Making Alternative Energy Mainstream 8 Disadvantages 9 See also 10 References

11 Further reading

[edit]Definitions

Source

Definition

Oxford Dictionary

energy fuelled in ways that do not use up natural resources or harm the [3] environment.

Princeton WordNet

energy derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm [4] the environment.

Responding to Climate energy derived from nontraditional sources (e.g., compressed natural gas, [5] Change 2007 solar, hydroelectric, wind).

Natural Resources Defense Council

energy that is not popularly used and is usually environmentally sound, such [6] as solar or wind energy (as opposed to fossil fuels).

Fuel sources that are other than those derived from fossil fuels. Typically Materials Management used interchangeably for renewable energy. Examples include: wind, solar, Services [7] biomass, wave and tidal energy.

Torridge District Council [edit]History

Energy generated from alternatives to fossil fuel. Need not be renewable.

[8]

Historians of economies have studied the key transitions to alternative energies and regard the [9][10][11] transitions as pivotal in bringing about significant economic change. Prior to shift to an alternative energy, supplies of the dominant energy type became erratic, accompanied by rapid increases in energy prices. [edit]Coal

as an alternative to wood

Historian Norman F. Cantor describes how in the late medieval period, coal was the new alternative fuel to save the society from overuse of the dominant fuel, wood: "Europeans had lived in the midst of vast forests throughout the earlier medieval centuries. After 1250 they became so skilled at deforestation that by 1500 AD they were running short of wood for heating and cooking... By 1500 Europe was on the edge of a fuel and nutritional

disaster, [from] which it was saved in the sixteenth century only by the burning of soft coal and the cultivation of potatoes and maize. " [edit]Petroleum
[12]

as an alternative to whale oil

Whale oil was the dominant form of lubrication and fuel for lamps in the early 19th century, but the depletion of the whale stocks by mid century caused whale oil prices to skyrocket setting the [13] stage for the adoption of petroleum which was first commercialized in Pennsylvania in 1859. [edit]Alcohol

as an alternative to fossil fuels

Main article: Ethanol fuel In 1917, Alexander Graham Bell advocated ethanol from corn, wheat and other foodstuffs as an alternative to coal and oil, stating that the world was in measurable distance of depleting these fuels. For Bell, the problem requiring an alternative was lack of renewability of orthodox energy [14] sources. Since the 1970s, Brazil has had an ethanol fuel program which has allowed the country to become the world's second largest producer of ethanol (after the United States) and [15] the world's largest exporter. Brazils ethanol fuel program uses modern equipment and cheap sugar cane as feedstock, and the residual cane-waste (bagasse) is used to process heat [16] and power. There are no longer light vehicles in Brazil running on pure gasoline. By the end of [17] 2008 there were 35,000 filling stations throughout Brazil with at least one ethanol pump. Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from a diverse array of feedstocks, and involves the use of the whole crop. This new approach should increase yields and reduce the carbon footprintbecause the amount of energy-intensive fertilizers and fungicides will remain the same, [18][19] for a higher output of usable material. As of 2008, there are nine commercial cellulosic [20] ethanol plants which are either operating, or under construction, in the United States. Second-generation biofuels technologies are able to manufacture biofuels from inedible biomass [21] and could hence prevent conversion of food into fuel." As of July 2010, there is one commercial second-generation (2G) ethanol plant Inbicon Biomass Refinery, which is operating in [22] Denmark. [edit]Coal

gasification as an alternative to petroleum

In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter's administration advocated coal gasification as an alternative to expensive imported oil. The program, including the Synthetic Fuels Corporation was scrapped when petroleum prices plummeted in the 1980s. The carbon footprint and environmental impact of coal gasification are both very high. [edit]Most [edit]Solar

common types of alternative energy

energy

Solar energy is generating of electricity from the sun. It is split up into two types, thermal and electric energy. [edit]Wind

energy energy

Wind energy is generating of electricity from the wind [edit]Geothermal

Geothermal energy is using hot water or steam from the Earths interior for heating buildings or electricity generation. [edit]Biofuel

and ethanol

Biofuel and ethanol are plant-derived substitutes of gasoline for powering vehicles. [edit]Hydrogen Hydrogen is used as clean fuel for airplanes, spaceships, and vehicles. Hydrogen alternative energy and nuclear energy are also frequently mentioned as the alternative sources of energy; however, they are surrounded by growing disputes on their safety for the environment, so it is still unclear how long those energy sources will remain marked as alternative [23] and environment friendly energy sources. [edit]Renewable

energy vs non-renewable energy

Main article: Renewable energy Renewable energy is generated from natural resourcessuch [24] as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heatwhich are renewable (naturally replenished). When comparing the processes for producing energy, there remain several fundamental differences between renewable energy and fossil fuels. The process of producing oil, coal, or natural gas fuel is a difficult and demanding process that requires a great deal of complex equipment, physical and chemical processes. On the other hand, alternative energy can be widely produced with basic equipment and naturally basic processes. Wood, the most renewable and available alternative energy, burns the same amount of carbon it would emit if it [25] degraded naturally. [edit]Ecologically

friendly alternatives

Renewable energy sources such as biomass are sometimes regarded as an alternative to ecologically harmful fossil fuels. Renewables are not inherently alternative energies for this purpose. For example, the Netherlands, once leader in use of palm oil as a biofuel, has suspended all subsidies for palm oil due to the scientific evidence that their use "may sometimes [26] create more environmental harm than fossil fuels". The Netherlands government and environmental groups are trying to trace the origins of imported palm oil, to certify which [26] operations produce the oil in a responsible manner. Regarding biofuels from foodstuffs, the realization that converting the entire grain harvest of the US would only produce 16% of its auto fuel needs, and the decimation of Brazil's CO2 absorbing tropical rain forests to make way for biofuel production has made it clear that placing energy markets in competition with food markets results in higher food prices and insignificant or negative impact on energy issues such as global [27] warming or dependence on foreign energy. Recently, alternatives to such undesirable sustainable fuels are being sought, such as commercially viable sources of cellulosic ethanol. [edit]Relatively [edit]Algae

new concepts for alternative energy

fuel

Algae fuel is a biofuel which is derived from algae. During photosynthesis, algae and other photosynthetic organisms capture carbon dioxide and sunlight and convert it into oxygen and biomass. The benefits of algal biofuel are that it can be produced industrially, thereby obviating the use of arable land and food crops (such as soy, palm, and canola), and that it has a very high oil yield as compared to all other sources of biofuel. [edit]Biomass

briquettes

Biomass briquettes are being developed in the developing world as an alternative to charcoal. The technique involves the conversion of almost any plant matter into compressed briquettes that

typically have about 70% the calorific value of charcoal. There are relatively few examples of large scale briquette production. One exception is in North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where forest clearance for charcoal production is considered to be the biggest threat to Mountain Gorilla habitat. The staff of Virunga National Park have successfully trained and equipped over 3500 people to produce biomass briquettes, thereby replacing charcoal produced illegally inside the national park, and creating significant employment for people living in extreme [28] poverty in conflict affected areas. [edit]Biogas digestion Biogas digestion deals with harnessing the methane gas that is released when waste breaks down. This gas can be retrieved from garbage or sewage systems. Biogas digesters are used to process methane gas by having bacteria break down biomass in an anaerobic [29] environment. The methane gas that is collected and refined can be used as an energy source for various products. [edit]Biological

Hydrogen Production
[30]

Hydrogen gas is a completely clean burning fuel; its only by-product is water. It also contains [31] relatively high amount of energy compared with other fuels due to its chemical structure. 2H2 + O2 2H2O + High Energy High Energy + 2H2O 2H2 + O2 This requires a high-energy input, making commercial hydrogen very inefficient. Use of a biological vector as a means to split water, and therefore produce hydrogen gas, would allow for the only energy input to be solar radiation. Biological vectors can include bacteria or more [33] commonly algae. This process is known as biological hydrogen production. It requires the use of single celled organisms to create hydrogen gas through fermentation. Without the presence of oxygen, also known as an anaerobic environment, regular cellular respiration cannot take place and a process known as fermentation takes over. A major by-product of this process is hydrogen gas. If we could implement this on a large scale, then we could take sunlight, nutrients and water [34] and create hydrogen gas to be used as a dense source of energy. Large-scale production has proven difficult. It was not until 1999 that we were able to even induce these anaerobic conditions [35] by sulfur deprivation. Since the fermentation process is an evolutionary back up, turned on during stress, the cells would die after a few days. In 2000, a two-stage process was developed [36] to take the cells in and out of anaerobic conditions and therefore keep them alive. For the last ten years, finding a way to do this on a large-scale has been the main goal of research. Careful work is being done to ensure an efficient process before large-scale production, however once a [37] mechanism is developed, this type of production could solve our energy needs. [edit]Floating
[32]

wind farms

Floating wind farms are similar to a regular wind farm, but the difference is that they float in the middle of the ocean. Offshore wind farms can be placed in water up to 40 metres (130 ft) deep, [38] whereas floating wind turbines can float in water up to 700 metres (2,300 ft) deep. The advantage of having a floating wind farm is to be able to harness the winds from the open ocean. Without any obstructions such as hills, trees and buildings, winds from the open ocean can reach [39] up to speeds twice as fast as coastal areas. [edit]Investing

in alternative energy

Over the last three years publicly traded alternative energy have been very volatile, with some 2007 returns in excess of 100%, some 2008 returns down 90% or more, and peak-to-trough

returns in 2009 again over 100%. In general there are three subsegments of alternative energy investment: solar energy, wind energy and hybrid electric vehicles. Alternative energy sources which are renewable, free and have lower carbon emissions than what we have now are wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, and bio fuels. Each of these four segments involve very different technologies and investment concerns. For example, photovoltaic solar energy is based on semiconductor processing and accordingly, benefits from steep cost reductions similar to those realized in the microprocessor industry (i.e., driven by larger scale, higher module efficiency, and improving processing technologies). PV solar energy is perhaps the only energy technology whose electricity generation cost could be reduced by half or more over the next 5 years. Better and more efficient manufacturing process and new technology such as advanced thin film solar cell is a good example of that helps to [40] reduce industry cost. The economics of solar PV electricity are highly dependent on silicon pricing and even companies whose technologies are based on other materials (e.g., First Solar) are impacted by the balance [citation needed] of supply and demand in the silicon market. In addition, because some companies sell completed solar cells on the open market (e.g., Q-Cells), this creates a low barrier to entry for companies that want to manufacture solar modules, which in turn can create an irrational pricing environment. In contrast, because wind power has been harnessed for over 100 years, its underlying technology is relatively stable. Its economics are largely determined by siting (e.g., how hard the wind blows and the grid investment requirements) and the prices of steel (the largest component of a wind turbine) and select composites (used for the blades). Because current wind turbines are often in excess of 100 meters high, logistics and a global manufacturing platform are major sources of competitive advantage. These issues and others were explored in a research report by [26] Sanford Bernstein. Some of its key conclusions are shown here. [edit]Alternative

[citation needed]

energy in transportation

Due to steadily rising gas prices in 2008 with the US national average price per gallon of regular [41] unleaded gas rising above $4.00 at one point, there has been a steady movement towards developing higher fuel efficiency and more alternative fuel vehicles for consumers. In response, many smaller companies have rapidly increased research and development into radically different ways of powering consumer vehicles. Hybrid and battery electric vehicles are commercially [42] available and are gaining wider industry and consumer acceptance worldwide. For example, Nissan USA introduced the world's first mass-production Electric Vehicle "Nissan [43] Leaf". [edit]Making

Alternative Energy Mainstream

Before alternative energy becomes main-stream there are a few crucial obstacles that it must overcome: First there must be increased understanding of how alternative energies work and why they are beneficial; secondly the availability components for these systems must increase; and lastly the pay-off time must be decreased. For example, electric vehicles (EV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) are on the rise. These vehicles depend heavily on an effective charging infrastructure such as a smart grid infrastructure to be able to implement electricity as mainstream alternative energy for future [44][unreliable source?] transportations.

[edit]Disadvantages There are a number of issues that would arise from switching to alternative energy. Increasing the nations use of natural gas for electricity generation could result in adverse economic consequences, especially since natural gas currently costs about four times more than [45] coal. Furthermore, if there were a widespread switching to natural gas from coal the United States would become increasingly dependent on international supplies. Also, large-scale fuel switching would require substantial investments in pipeline storage and storage capacity and new [45] terminals to process imported natural gas. There is also the question of whether to convert existing coal-burning plants or to construct new ones. Burning natural gas at an existing coal [45] plant would require a pipeline with the ability to meet the plants fuel supply requirements. It would also require expansion of interstate and intrastate pipelines to transport increased [45] volumes of natural gas Overall it would be more feasible and cost-effective to construct new natural gas units than to switch coal-burning plants.

Ecology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Ecology (disambiguation).

Ecology

The scientific discipline of ecology addresses the full scale of life, from tiny bacteria to processes that span the entire planet. Ecologists study many diverse and complex relations among species, such as predation and pollination. The diversity of life is organized into different habitats, from terrestrial(middle) to aquatic ecosystems.

Ecology (from Greek: , "house"; -, "study of") is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount (biomass), number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems. Ecosystems are hierarchical systems that are organized into a graded series of regularly interacting and semi-independent parts (e.g., species) that aggregate into higher orders of complex integrated wholes (e.g., communities). Ecosystems are sustained by the biodiversity within them. Biodiversity is the full-scale of life and its processes, including genes, species and ecosystems forming lineages that integrate into a complex and regenerative spatial arrangement of types, forms, and interactions. Ecosystems create biophysical feedback mechanisms between living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components of the planet. These feedback loops regulate and sustain local communities, continental climate systems, and global biogeochemical cycles. Ecology is a sub-discipline of biology, the study of life. The word "ecology" ("kologie") was coined in 1866 by the German scientistErnst Haeckel (18341919). Ancient philosophers of Greece, including Hippocrates and Aristotle, were among the earliest to record notes and observations on the natural history of plants and animals. Modern ecology branched out of natural history and matured into a more rigorous science in the late 19th century. Charles Darwin's evolutionary treatise including the concept of adaptation, as it was introduced in 1859, is a pivotal cornerstone in modern ecological theory. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history or environmental science. It is closely related to physiology, evolutionary biology, genetics and ethology. An understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function is an important focus area in ecological studies. Ecologists seek to explain:

Life processes and adaptations Distribution and abundance of organisms The movement of materials and energy through living communities

The successional development of ecosystems, and The abundance and distribution of biodiversity in context of the environment.

Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management,natural resource management (agriculture, forestry, fisheries), city planning (urban ecology), community health, economics, basic andapplied science and human social interaction (human ecology). Ecosystems sustain every life-supporting function on the planet, includingclimate regulation, water filtration, soil formation (pedogenesis), food, fibers, medicines, erosion control, and many other natural features of scientific, historical or spiritual value. [1][2][3]
Contents

1 Integrative levels, scope, and scale of organization

o o o o

1.1 Hierarchical ecology 1.2 Biodiversity 1.3 Habitat 1.4 Niche

o o o

1.4.1 Niche construction

1.5 Biome 1.6 Biosphere 1.7 Population ecology

o o

1.7.1 Metapopulations and migration

1.8 Community ecology 1.9 Ecosystem ecology

1.9.1 Food webs 1.9.2 Trophic levels 1.9.3 Keystone species

1.10 Soils

2 Ecological complexity

2.1 Holism

3 Relation to evolution

o o o o

3.1 Behavioral ecology 3.2 Social ecology 3.3 Coevolution 3.4 Biogeography

3.4.1 r/K-Selection theory

3.5 Molecular ecology

4 Human ecology

5 Relation to the environment

o o o o

5.1 Disturbance and resilience 5.2 Metabolism and the early atmosphere 5.3 Radiation: heat, temperature and light 5.4 Physical environments

6 History

5.4.1 Water 5.4.2 Gravity 5.4.3 Pressure 5.4.4 Wind and turbulence 5.4.5 Fire 5.4.6 Biogeochemistry

o o

6.1 Early beginnings 6.2 After the turn of 20th century

7 See also

7.1 Lists

8 References 9 Further reading

o o

9.1 Introductory 9.2 Advanced

10 External links

[edit]Integrative

levels, scope, and scale of organization

See also: Integrative level

Ecosystems regenerate after a disturbance such as fire, forming mosaics of different age groups structured across a landscape. Pictured are different seral stages in forested ecosystems starting from pioneers colonizing a disturbed site and maturing in successional stages leading to old-growth forests.

The scope of ecology covers a wide array of interacting levels of organization spanning micro-level (e.g., cells) to planetary scale (e.g., ecosphere) phenomena. Ecosystems, for example, contain populations of individuals that aggregate into distinct ecological communities. It can take thousands

of years for ecological processes to mature through and until the final successional stages of a forest. The area of an ecosystem can vary greatly from tiny to vast. A single tree is of little consequence to the classification of a forest ecosystem, but critically relevant to the smaller organisms living in and on it.[4] Several generations of an aphid population can exist over the lifespan of a single leaf. Each of those aphids, in turn, support diverse bacterial communities.[5] The nature of connections in ecological communities cannot be explained by knowing the details of each species in isolation, because the emergent pattern is neither revealed nor predicted until the ecosystem is studied as an integrated whole. Some ecological principles, however, do exhibit collective properties where the sum of the components explain the properties of the whole, such as birth rates of a population being equal to the sum of individual births over a designated time frame.[6]

[edit]Hierarchical

ecology

See also: Biological organisation

System behaviours must first be arrayed into levels of organization. Behaviors corresponding to higher levels occur at slow rates. Conversely, lower organizational levels exhibit rapid rates. For example, individual tree leaves respond rapidly to momentary changes in light intensity, CO2 concentration, and the like. The growth of the tree responds more slowly and integrates these short-term changes.[7]:76

The scale of ecological dynamics can operate like a closed island with respect to local site variables, such as aphids migrating on a tree, while at the same time remain open with regard to broader scale influences, such as atmosphere or climate. Hence, ecologists have devised means of hierarchically classifying ecosystems by analyzing data collected from finer scale units, such as vegetation associations, climate, and soil types, and integrate this information to identify larger emergent patterns of uniform organization and processes that operate on local to regional, landscape, and chronological scales. To structure the study of ecology into a manageable framework of understanding, the biological world is conceptually organized as a nested hierarchy of organization, ranging in scale from genes, to cells, to tissues, to organs, to organisms, to species and up to the level of the biosphere.[8] Together these hierarchical scales of life form a panarchy[9][10] and they exhibit non-linear behaviours; "nonlinearity refers to the fact that effect and cause are disproportionate, so that small changes in critical variables, such as the numbers of nitrogen fixers, can lead to disproportionate, perhaps irreversible, changes in the system properties."[11]:14

[edit]Biodiversity
Main article: biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of life and its processes. It includes the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in which they occur, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep them functioning, yet ever changing and adapting.[12]:5

Biodiversity (an abbreviation of biological diversity) describes the diversity of life from genes to ecosystems and spans every level of biological organization. Biodiversity means different things to different people and there are many ways to index, measure, characterize, and represent its complex organization.[13][14] Biodiversity includes species diversity, ecosystem diversity, genetic diversity and the complex processes operating at and among these respective levels.[14][15][16] Biodiversity plays an important role inecological health as much as it does for human health.[17][18] Preventing or prioritizing species extinctions is one way to preserve biodiversity, but populations, the genetic diversity within them and ecological processes, such as migration, are being threatened on global scales and disappearing rapidly as well. Conservation priorities and management techniques require different approaches and considerations to address the full ecological scope of biodiversity. Populations and species migration, for example, are more sensitive indicators of ecosystem services that sustain and contribute natural capital toward the wellbeing of humanity.[19][20][21][22] An understanding of biodiversity has practical application for ecosystem-based conservation planners as they make ecologically responsible decisions in management recommendations to consultant firms, governments and industry.[23]

[edit]Habitat
Main article: Habitat The habitat of a species describes the environment over which a species is known to occur and the type of community that is formed as a result.[24] More specifically, "habitats can be defined as regions in environmental space that are composed of multiple dimensions, each representing a biotic or abiotic environmental variable; that is, any component or characteristic of the environment related directly (e.g. forage biomass and quality) or indirectly (e.g. elevation) to the use of a location by the animal." [25]:745 For example, the habitat might refer to an aquatic or terrestrial environment that can be further categorized as montane or alpine ecosystems. Habitat shifts provide important evidence of competition in nature where one population changes relative to the habitats that most other individuals of the species occupy. One population of a species of tropical lizards (Tropidurus hispidus), for example, has a flattened body relative to the main populations that live in open savanna. The population that lives in an isolated rock outcrop hides in crevasses where its flattened body may improve its performance. Habitat shifts also occur in the developmental life history of amphibians and many insects that transition from aquatic to terrestrial habitats. Biotope and habitat are sometimes used interchangeably, but the former applies to a communities environment, whereas the latter applies to a species' environment.[24][26][27]

Biodiversity of a coral reef. Corals adapt and modify their environment by formingcalcium carbonate skeletons that provide growing conditions for future generations and form habitat for many other species. [28]

[edit]Niche
Main article: Ecological niche

Termite mounds with varied heights of chimneys regulate gas exchange, temperature and other environmental parameters that are needed to sustain the internal physiology of the entire colony. [29][30]

There are many definitions of the niche dating back to 1917,[31] but G. Evelyn Hutchinson made conceptual advances in 1957[32][33] and introduced the most widely accepted definition: "which a species is able to persist and maintain stable population sizes."[31]:519 The ecological niche is a central concept in the ecology of organisms and is sub-divided into the fundamental and the realized niche. The fundamental niche is the set of environmental conditions under which a species is able to persist. The realized niche is the set of environmental plus ecological conditions under which a species persists.[31][33][34] The Hutchisonian niche is defined more technically as an "Euclidean hyperspace whosedimensions are defined as environmental variables and whose size is a function of the number of values that the environmental values may assume for which an organism has positive fitness."[35]:71 Biogeographical patterns and range distributions are explained or predicted through knowledge and understanding of a species traits and niche requirements.[36] Species have functional traits that are uniquely adapted to the ecological niche. A trait is a measurable property, phenotype, or characteristic of an organism that influences its performance. Genes play an important role in the development and expression of traits.[37]Resident species evolve traits that are fitted to their local environment. This tends to afford them a competitive advantage and discourages similarly adapted species from having an overlapping geographic range. The competitive exclusion principle suggests that two species cannot coexist indefinitely by living off the same limiting resource. When similarly adapted species are found to overlap geographically, closer inspection reveals subtle ecological differences in their habitat or dietary requirements.[38] Some models and empirical studies, however, suggest that disturbances can stabilize the coevolution and shared niche occupancy of similar species inhabiting species rich communities. [39] The habitat plus the niche is called the ecotope, which is defined as the full range of environmental and biological variables affecting an entire species.[24]

[edit]Niche construction
Main article: Niche construction See also: Ecosystem engineering Organisms are subject to environmental pressures, but they are also modifiers of their habitats. The regulatory feedback between organisms and their environment can modify conditions from local (e.g., a beaver pond) to global scales (e.g., Gaia), over time and even after death, such as decaying logs or silica skeleton deposits from marine organisms.[40] The process and concept of ecosystem engineering has also been called niche construction. Ecosystem engineers are defined as: "...organisms that directly or indirectly modulate the availability of resources to other species, by causing physical state changes in biotic or abiotic materials. In so doing they modify, maintain and create habitats."[41]:373 The ecosystem engineering concept has stimulated a new appreciation for the degree of influence that organisms have on the ecosystem and evolutionary process. The terms niche construction are more often used in reference to the under appreciated feedback mechanism of natural selection imparting forces on the abiotic niche.[29][42] An example of natural selection through ecosystem engineering occurs in the nests

ofsocial insects, including ants, bees, wasps, and termites. There is an emergent homeostasis or homeorhesis in the structure of the nest that regulates, maintains and defends the physiology of the entire colony. Termite mounds, for example, maintain a constant internal temperature through the design of air-conditioning chimneys. The structure of the nests themselves are subject to the forces of natural selection. Moreover, the nest can survive over successive generations, which means that ancestors inherit both genetic material and a legacy niche that was constructed before their time. [6][29][30][43]

[edit]Biome
Main article: Biome Biomes are larger units of organization that categorize regions of the Earth's ecosystems mainly according to the structure and composition of vegetation.[44] Different researchers have applied different methods to define continental boundaries of biomes dominated by different functional types of vegetative communities that are limited in distribution by climate, precipitation, weather and other environmental variables. Examples of biome names include: tropical rainforest, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, temperate deciduous forest, taiga, tundra, hot desert, andpolar desert.[45] Other researchers have recently started to categorize other types of biomes, such as the human and oceanic microbiomes. To a microbe, the human body is a habitat and a landscape.[46] The microbiome has been largely discovered through advances in molecular genetics that have revealed a hidden richness of microbial diversity on the planet. The oceanic microbiome plays a significant role in the ecological biogeochemistry of the planet's oceans. [47]

[edit]Biosphere
Main article: Biosphere See also: Ecosphere Ecological theory has been used to explain self-emergent regulatory phenomena at the planetary scale. The largest scale of ecological organization is the biosphere: the total sum of ecosystems on the planet. Ecological relationships regulate the flux of energy, nutrients, and climate all the way up to the planetary scale. For example, the dynamic history of the planetary CO2 and O2 composition of the atmosphere has been largely determined by the biogenic flux of gases coming from respiration and photosynthesis, with levels fluctuating over time and in relation to the ecology and evolution of plants and animals.[48] When sub-component parts are organized into a whole there are oftentimes emergent properties that describe the nature of the system. The Gaia hypothesis is an example of holism applied in ecological theory.[49] The ecology of the planet acts as a single regulatory or holistic unit called Gaia. The Gaia hypothesis states that there is an emergent feedback loop generated by the metabolism of living organisms that maintains the temperature of the Earth and atmospheric conditions within a narrow selfregulating range of tolerance.[50]

[edit]Population

ecology

Main article: Population ecology

The population is the unit of analysis in population ecology. A population consists of individuals of the same species that live, interact and migrate through the same niche and habitat.[51]A primary law of population ecology is the Malthusian growth model.[52] This law states that: "...a population will grow (or decline) exponentially as long as the environment experienced by all individuals in the population remains constant."[52]:18 This Malthusian premise provides the basis for formulating predictive theories and tests that follow. Simplified population models usually start with four variables including death, birth,immigration, and emigration. Mathematical models are used to calculate changes in population demographics using a null model. A null model is used as a null hypothesis for statistical testing. The null hypothesis states that random processes create observed patterns. Alternatively the patterns differ significantly from the random model and require further explanation. Models can be mathematically complex where "...several competing hypotheses are simultaneously confronted with the data."[53] An example of an introductory population model describes a closed population, such as on an island, where immigration and emigration does not take place. In these island models the rate of population change is described by:

where N is the total number of individuals in the population, B is the number of births, D is the number of deaths, b and d are the per capita rates of birth and death respectively, and r is the per capita rate of population change. This formula can be read out as the rate of change in the population (dN/dT) is equal to births minus deaths (B D).[52][54] Using these modelling techniques, Malthus' population principle of growth was later transformed into a model known as the logistic equation:

where N is the number of individuals measured as biomass density, a is the maximum per-capita rate of change, and K is the carrying capacity of the population. The formula can be read as follows: the rate of change in the population (dN/dT) is equal to growth (aN) that is limited by carrying capacity (1 N/K). The discipline of population ecology builds upon these introductory models to further understand demographic processes in real study populations and conduct statistical tests. The field of population ecology often uses data on life historyand matrix algebra to develop projection matrices on fecundity and survivorship. This information is used for managing wildlife stocks and setting harvest quotas.[54][55]

[edit]Metapopulations and migration

Main article: Metapopulation See also: Animal migration

Populations are also studied and modeled according to the metapopulation concept. The metapopulation concept was introduced in 1969:[56] "as a population of populations which go extinct locally and recolonize."[57]:105 Metapopulation ecology is another statistical approach that is often used in conservation research.[58] Metapopulation research simplifies the landscape into patches of varying levels of quality.[59] Metapopulations are linked by the migratory behaviours of organisms. Animal migration is set apart from other kinds of movement because it involves the seasonal departure and return of individuals from one habitat to another.[60] Migration is also a population level phenomenon, such as the migration routes followed by plants as they occupied northern post-glacial environments. Plant ecologists rely on pollen records that accumulate and stratify in wetlands to reconstruct the timing of plant migration and dispersal relative to historic and contemporary climates. These migration routes involved an expansion of the range as plant populations expanded from one area to another. There is a larger taxonomy of movement, such as commuting, foraging, territorial behaviour, stasis, and ranging. Dispersal is usually distinguished from migration because it involves the one way permanent movement of individuals from their birth population into another population.[61][62] In metapopulation terminology there are emigrants (individuals that leave a patch), immigrants (individuals that move into a patch) and sites are classed either as sources or sinks. A site is a generic term that refers to places where ecologists sample populations, such as ponds or defined sampling areas in a forest. Source patches are productive sites that generate a seasonal supply of juveniles that migrate to other patch locations. Sink patches are unproductive sites that only receive migrants and will go extinct unless rescued by an adjacent source patch or environmental conditions become more favorable. Metapopulation models examine patch dynamics over time to answer questions about spatial and demographic ecology. The ecology of metapopulations is a dynamic process of extinction and colonization. Small patches of lower quality (i.e., sinks) are maintained or rescued by a seasonal influx of new immigrants. A dynamic metapopulation structure evolves from year to year, where some patches are sinks in dry years and become sources when conditions are more favorable. Ecologists use a mixture of computer models and field studies to explain metapopulation structure.[63][64]

[edit]Community

ecology

Main article: Community ecology

Interspecific interactions such aspredation are a key aspect of community ecology. Community ecology examines how interactions among species and their environment affect the abundance, distribution and diversity of species within communities. Johnson & Stinchcomb[65]:250

Community ecology is the study of the interactions among a collection of interdependent species that cohabitate the same geographic area. An example of a study in community ecology might measure primary production in a wetland in relation to decomposition and consumption rates. This requires an understanding of the community connections between plants (i.e., primary producers) and the decomposers (e.g., fungi and bacteria).[66] or the analysis of predator-prey dynamics affecting amphibian biomass.[67] Food webs and trophic levels are two widely employed conceptual models used to explain the linkages among species.[68][69]

[edit]Ecosystem

ecology

Main article: Ecosystem ecology

These ecosystems, as we may call them, are of the most various kinds and sizes. They form one category of the multitudinous physical systems of the universe, which range from the universe as a whole down to the atom. Tansley[70]:299

Figure 1. A riparian forest in the White Mountains,New Hampshire (USA), an example of ecosystem ecology

The concept of the ecosystem was fully synthesized in 1935 to describe habitats within biomes that form an integrated whole and a dynamically responsive system having both physical and biological complexes. However, the underlying concept can be traced back to 1864 in the published work of George Perkins Marsh ("Man and Nature").[71][72] Within an ecosystem there are inseparable ties that link organisms to the physical and biological components of their

environment to which they are adapted.[70] Ecosystems are complex adaptive systems where the interaction of life processes form self-organizing patterns across different scales of time and space.[73] terrestrial, freshwater, atmospheric, and marine ecosystems very broadly cover the major types. Differences stem from the nature of the unique physical environments that shapes the biodiversity within each. A more recent addition to ecosystem ecology are the novel technoecosystems of the anthropocene.[6]

[edit]Food webs
Main article: Food web See also: Food chain A food web is the archetypal ecological network. Plants capture and convert solar energy into the biomolecular bonds of simple sugars during photosynthesis. This food energy is transferred through a series of organisms starting with those that feed on plants and are themselves consumed. The simplified linear feeding pathways that move from a basal trophic species to a top consumer is called the food chain. The larger interlocking pattern of food chains in an ecological community creates a complex food web. Food webs are a type ofconcept map or a heuristic device that is used illustrate and study pathways of energy and material flows. [7][74][75]

Generalized food web of waterbirds from Chesapeake Bay

Food webs are often limited relative to the real world. Complete empirical measurements are generally restricted to a specific habitat, such as a cave or a pond. Principles gleaned from food web microcosm studies are used to extrapolate smaller dynamic concepts to larger systems.[76] Feeding relations require extensive investigations into the gut contents of organisms, which can be very difficult to decipher, or (more recently) stable isotopes can be used to trace the flow of nutrient diets and energy through a food web.[77] While food webs often give an incomplete measure of ecosystems, they are nonetheless a valuable tool in understanding community ecosystems.[78]

Food-webs exhibit principals of ecological emergence through the nature of trophic entanglement, where some species have many weak feeding links (e.g., omnivores) while some are more specialized with fewer stronger feeding links (e.g., primary predators). Theoretical and empirical studies identify non-random emergent patterns of few strong and many weak linkages that serve to explain how ecological communities remain stable over time.[79] Food-webs have compartments, where the many strong interactions create subgroups among some members in a community and the few weak interactions occur between these subgroups. These compartments increase the stability of food-webs.[80] As plants grow, they accumulate carbohydrates and are eaten by grazing herbivores. Step by step lines or relations are drawn until a web of life is illustrated.[75][81][82][83]

[edit]Trophic levels
Main article: Trophic level

A trophic pyramid (a) and a food-web (b) illustrating ecological relationships among creatures that are typical of a northern Boreal terrestrial ecosystem. The trophic pyramid roughly represents the biomass (usually measured as total dry-weight) at each level. Plants generally have the greatest biomass. Names of trophic categories are shown to the right of the pyramid. Some ecosystems, such as many wetlands, do not organize as a strict pyramid, because aquatic plants are not as productive as long-lived terrestrial plants such as trees. Ecological trophic pyramids are typically one of three kinds: 1) pyramid of numbers, 2) pyramid of biomass, or 3) pyramid of energy.[6]

The Greek root of the word troph, , troph, means food or feeding. Links in foodwebs primarily connect feeding relations or trophism among species. Biodiversity within ecosystems can be organized into vertical and horizontal dimensions. The vertical dimension represents feeding relations that become further removed from the base of the food chain up toward top predators. A trophic level is defined as "a group of organisms acquiring a considerable majority of its energy from the adjacent level nearer the abiotic source."[84]:383 The horizontal dimension represents the abundance or biomass at each level.[85] When the relative abundance or

biomass of each functional feeding group is stacked into their respective trophic levels they naturally sort into a 'pyramid of numbers'.[86] Functional groups are broadly categorized as autotrophs (or primary producers), heterotrophs (orconsumers), and detrivores (or decomposers). Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own food (production is greater than respiration) and are usually plants or cyanobacteria that are capable ofphotosynthesis but can also be other organisms such as bacteria near ocean vents that are capable ofchemosynthesis. Heterotrophs are organisms that must feed on others for nourishment and energy (respiration exceeds production).[6] Heterotrophs can be further sub-divided into different functional groups, including: primary consumers (strict herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivorous predators that feed exclusively on herbivores) and tertiary consumers (predators that feed on a mix of herbivores and predators).[87] Omnivores do not fit neatly into a functional category because they eat both plant and animal tissues. It has been suggested that omnivores have a greater functional influence as predators because relative to herbivores they are comparatively inefficient at grazing.[88] Trophic levels are part of the holistic or complex systems view of ecosystems.[89][90] Each trophic level contains unrelated species that grouped together because they share common ecological functions. Grouping functionally similar species into a trophic system gives a macroscopic image of the larger functional design.[91] While the notion of trophic levels provides insight into energy flow and top-down control within food webs, it is troubled by the prevalence of omnivory in real ecosystems. This has lead some ecologists to "reiterate that the notion that species clearly aggregate into discrete, homogeneous trophic levels is fiction."[92]:815 Nonetheless, recent studies have shown that real trophic levels do exist, but "above the herbivore trophic level, food webs are better characterized as a tangled web of omnivores."[93]:612

[edit]Keystone species
Main article: Keystone species A keystone species is a species that is disproportionately connected to more species in the foodweb. Keystone species have lower levels of biomass in the trophic pyramid relative to the importance of their role. The many connections that a keystone species holds means that it maintains the organization and structure of entire communities. The loss of a keystone species results in a range of dramatic cascading effects that alters trophic dynamics, other food-web connections and can cause the extinction of other species in the community. [94][95] Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are commonly cited as an example of a keystone species because they limit the density of sea urchins that feed on kelp. If sea otters are removed from the system, the urchins graze until the kelp beds disappear and this has a dramatic effect on community

structure.[96] Hunting of sea otters, for example, is thought to have indirectly led to the extinction of the Steller's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas).[97] While the keystone species concept has been used extensively as a conservation tool, it has been criticized for being poorly defined from an operational stance. It is very difficult to experimentally determine in each different ecosystem what species may hold a keystone role. Furthermore, food-web theory suggests that keystone species may not be all that common. It is therefore unclear how generally the keystone species model can be applied.[96][98]

[edit]Soils
Main article: Soil ecology Soil is the living top layer of mineral and organic dirt that covers the surface of the planet, it is the chief organizing centre of most ecosystem functions, and it is of critical importance in agricultural science and ecology. The decomposition of dead organic matter, such as leaves falling on the forest floor, turns into soils containing minerals and nutrients that feed into plant production. The total sum of the planet's soil ecosystems is called the pedosphere where a very large proportion of the Earth's biodiversity sorts into other trophic levels. Invertebrates that feed and shred larger leaves, for example, create smaller bits for smaller organisms in the feeding chain. Collectively, these are the detrivores that regulate soil formation. [99][100][101][102]Tree roots, fungi, bacteria, worms, ants, beetles, centipedes, spiders, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and other less familiar creatures all work to create the trophic web of life in soil ecosystems. As organisms feed and migrate through soils they physically displace materials, which is an important ecological process called bioturbation. Bioturbation helps to aerate the soils, thus stimulating hetertrophic growth and production. Biomass of soil microorganisms are influenced by and feed back into the trophic dynamics of the exposed solar surface ecology. Paleoecological studies of soils places the origin for bioturbation to a time before the Cambrian period. Other events, such as the evolution of trees and amphibians moving into land in the Devonian period played a significant role in the development of the ecological trophism in soils.[67][102][103]

[edit]Ecological

complexity

Main article: Complexity See also: Emergence Complexity is easily understood as a large computational effort needed to piece together numerous interacting parts exceeding the iterative memory capacity of the human mind. Global patterns of biological diversity are complex. This biocomplexity stems from the interplay among ecological processes that operate and influence patterns at different scales that grade into each other, such as transitional areas or ecotones spanning landscapes.[104] Complexity stems from the interplay among levels of biological organization as energy and matter is integrated into larger

units that superimpose onto the smaller parts. "What were wholes on one level become parts on a higher one."[105]:209 Small scale patterns do not necessarily explain large scale phenomena, otherwise captured in the expression (coined by Aristotle) 'the sum is greater than the parts'.[106][107] "Complexity in ecology is of at least six distinct types: spatial, temporal, structural, process, behavioral, and geometric."[108]:3 Out of these principles, ecologists have identifiedemergent and self-organizing phenomena that operate at different environmental scales of influence, ranging from molecular to planetary, and these require different sets of scientific explanation at each integrative level.[50][109] Ecological complexity relates to the dynamic resilience of ecosystems that transition to multiple shifting steady-states directed by random fluctuations of history.[9][110] Long-term ecological studies provide important track records to better understand the complexity and resilience of ecosystems over longer temporal and broader spatial scales. The International Long Term Ecological Network[111] manages and exchanges scientific information among research sites. The longest experiment in existence is the Park Grass Experiment that was initiated in 1856.[112] Another example includes the Hubbard Brook study in operation since 1960.[113]

[edit]Holism
Main article: Holism The biological organization of life self-organizes into layers of emergent whole systems that function according to nonreducible properties called holism. This means that higher order patterns of a whole functional system, such as an ecosystem, cannot be predicted or understood by a simple summation of the parts. "New properties emerge because the components interact, not because the basic nature of the components is changed."[6]:8 Ecological studies are necessarily holistic as opposed to reductionistic.[109][114][editorializing] Holism has three scientific meanings or uses that identify with: 1) the mechanistic complexity of ecosystems, 2) the practical description of patterns in quantitative reductionist terms where correlations may be identified but nothing is understood about the causal relations without reference to the whole system, which leads to 3) a metaphysical hierarchy whereby the causal relations of larger systems are understood without reference to the smaller parts. An example of the metaphysical aspect to holism is identified in the trend of increased exterior thickness in shells of different species. The reason for a thickness increase can be understood through reference to principals of natural selection via predation without need to reference or understand the biomolecular properties of the exterior shells.[115]

[edit]Relation

to evolution

Main article: Evolutionary ecology

Ecology and evolution are considered sister disciplines of the life sciences. Natural selection, life history, development, adaptation, populations, and inheritance are examples of concepts that thread equally into ecological and evolutionary theory. Morphological, behavioral and/or genetic traits, for example, can be mapped onto evolutionary trees to study the historical development of a species in relation to their functions and roles in different ecological circumstances. In this framework, the analytical tools of ecologists and evolutionists overlap as they organize, classify and investigate life through common systematic principals, such as phylogenetics or the Linnaean system of taxonomy.[116] The two disciplines often appear together, such as in the title of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.[117] There is no sharp boundary separating ecology from evolution and they differ more in their areas of applied focus. Both disciplines discover and explain emergent and unique properties and processes operating across different spatial or temporal scales of organization.[50][118][119] While the boundary between ecology and evolution is not always clear, it is understood that ecologists study the abiotic and biotic factors that influence the evolutionary process.[120][121]

[edit]Behavioral

ecology

Main article: Behavioral ecology

Social display and color variation in differently adapted species of chameleons (Bradypodion spp.). Chameleons change their skin color to match their background as a behavioral defense mechanism and also use color to communicate with other members of their species, such as dominant (left) versus submissive (right) patterns shown in the three species (A-C) above.[122]

All organisms are motile to some extent. Even plants express complex behavior, including memory and communication.[123]Behavioral ecology is the study of an organism's behavior in its environment and its ecological and evolutionary implications. Ethology is the study of observable movement or behavior in animals. This could include investigations of motile sperm of plants, mobile phytoplankton, zooplankton swimming toward the female egg, the cultivation of fungi by weevils, the mating dance of a salamander, or social gatherings of amoeba.[124][125][126][127][128] Adaptation is the central unifying concept in behavioral ecology.[129] Behaviors can be recorded as traits and inherited in much the same way that eye and hair color can. Behaviors evolve and

become adapted to the ecosystem because they are subject to the forces of natural selection.[15] Hence, behaviors can be adaptive, meaning that they evolve functional utilities that increases reproductive success for the individuals that inherit such traits.[130] This is also the technical definition forfitness in biology, which is a measure of reproductive success over successive generations.[15] Predator-prey interactions are an introductory concept into food-web studies as well as behavioral ecology.[131] Prey species can exhibit different kinds of behavioral adaptations to predators, such as avoid, flee or defend. Many prey species are faced with multiple predators that differ in the degree of danger posed. To be adapted to their environment and face predatory threats, organisms must balance their energy budgets as they invest in different aspects of their life history, such as growth, feeding, mating, socializing, or modifying their habitat. Hypotheses posited in behavioral ecology are generally based on adaptive principals of conservation, optimization or efficiency.[34][120][132] For example, "The threat-sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis predicts that prey should assess the degree of threat posed by different predators and match their behavior according to current levels of risk."[133] "The optimal flight initiation distance occurs where expected postencounter fitness is maximized, which depends on the prey's initial fitness, benefits obtainable by not fleeing, energetic escape costs, and expected fitness loss due to predation risk."[134]

Symbiosis: Leafhoppers (Eurymela fenestrata) are protected by ants(Iridomyrmex purpureus) in a symbioticrelationship. The ants protect the leafhoppers from predators and in return the leafhoppers feeding on plants exude honeydew from their anus that provides energy and nutrients to tending ants. [135]

Elaborate sexual displays and posturing are encountered in the behavioral ecology of animals. The birds of paradise, for example, display elaborate ornaments and song during courtship. These displays serve a dual purpose of signaling healthy or well-adapted individuals and desirable genes. The elaborate displays are driven by sexual selection as an advertisement of quality of traits among male suitors.[136]

[edit]Social

ecology

Main article: Social ecology Social ecological behaviors are notable in the social insects, slime moulds, social spiders, human society, and naked mole rats whereeusocialism has evolved. Social behaviors include reciprocally beneficial behaviors among kin and nest mates.[15][126][137] Social behaviors evolve from kin and group selection. Kin selection explains altruism through genetic relationships, whereby an altruistic behavior leading to death is rewarded by the survival of genetic copies distributed among surviving relatives. The social insects, including ants, bees and wasps are most famously studied for this type of relationship because the male drones are clones that share the same genetic make-up as every other male in the colony.[15] In contrast, group selectionists find examples of altruism among non-genetic relatives and explain this through selection acting on the group, whereby it becomes selectively advantageous for groups if their members express altruistic behaviors to one another. Groups that are predominantly altruists beat groups that are predominantly selfish.[15][138]

[edit]Coevolution
Main article: Coevolution Ecological interactions can be divided into host and associate relationships. A host is any entity that harbors another that is called the associate.[139] Host and associate relationships among species that are mutually or reciprocally beneficial are called mutualisms. If the host and associate are physically connected, the relationship is called symbiosis. Approximately 60% of all plants, for example, have a symbiotic relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Symbiotic plants and fungi exchange carbohydrates for mineral nutrients.[140] Symbiosis differs from indirect mutualisms where the organisms live apart. For example, tropical rainforests regulate the Earth's atmosphere. Trees living in the equatorial regions of the planet supply oxygen into the atmosphere that sustains species living in distant polar regions of the planet. This relationship is called commensalism because many other host species receive the benefits of clean air at no cost or harm to the associate tree species supplying the oxygen.[141] The host and associate relationship is called parasitism if one species benefits while the other suffers. Competition among

species or among members of the same species is defined as reciprocal antagonism, such as grasses competing for growth space.[142]

Parasites: A harvestman arachnid is parasitized bymites. This is parasitism because the harvestman is being consumed as its juices are slowly sucked out while the mites gain all the benefits traveling on and feeding off of their host.

Popular ecological study systems for mutualism include, fungus-growing ants employing agricultural symbiosis, bacteria living in the guts of insects and other organisms, the fig wasp and yucca moth pollination complex, lichens with fungi and photosyntheticalgae, and corals with photosynthetic algae.[143][144] Nevertheless, many organisms exploit host rewards without reciprocating and thus have been branded with a myriad of not-very-flattering names such as 'cheaters', 'exploiters', 'robbers', and 'thieves'. Although cheaters impose several host cots (e.g., via damage to their reproductive organs or propagules, denying the services of a beneficial partner), their net effect on host fitness is not necessarily negative and, thus, becomes difficult to forecast.[145][146]

[edit]Biogeography
Main article: Biogeography The word biogeography is an amalgamation of biology and geography. Biogeography is the comparative study of the geographic distribution of organisms and the corresponding evolution of their traits in space and time.[147] The Journal of Biogeography was established in 1974.[148] Biogeography and ecology share many of their disciplinary roots. For example, the theory of island biogeography, published by the mathematician Robert MacArthur and

ecologist Edward O. Wilson in 1967[149] is considered one of the fundamentals of ecological theory.[150] Biogeography has a long history in the natural sciences where questions arise concerning the spatial distribution of plants and animals. Ecology and evolution provide the explanatory context for biogeographical studies.[147] Biogeographical patterns result from ecological processes that influence range distributions, such as migration and dispersal.[150] and from historical processes that split populations or species into different areas.[151] The biogeographic processes that result in the natural splitting of species explains much of the modern distribution of the Earth's biota. The splitting of lineages in a species is called vicariance biogeography and it is a sub-discipline of biogeography.[151][152][153] There are also practical applications in the field of biogeography concerning ecological systems and processes. For example, the range and distribution of biodiversity and invasive species responding to climate change is a serious concern and active area of research in context of global warming.[20][154]

[edit]r/K-Selection theory
Main article: r/K selection A population ecology concept (introduced in MacArthur and Wilson's (1967) book, The Theory of Island Biogeography) is r/K selection theory, one of the first predictive models in ecology used to explain life-history evolution. The premise behind the r/K selection model is that natural selection pressures change according to population density. For example, when an island is first colonized, density of individuals is low. The initial increase in population size is not limited by competition, leaving an abundance of available resources for rapid population growth. These early phases of population growth experience density-independent forces of natural selection, which is called rselection. As the population becomes more crowded, it approaches the island's carrying capacity, thus forcing individuals to compete more heavily for fewer available resources. Under crowded conditions the population experiences density-dependent forces of natural selection, called Kselection.[155] In the r/K-selection model, the first variable r is the intrinsic rate of natural increase in population size and the second variable K is the carrying capacity of a population.[34] Different species evolve different life-history strategies spanning a continuum between these two selective forces. An rselected species is one that has high birth rates, low levels of parental investment, and high rates of mortality before individuals reach maturity. Evolution favors high rates of fecundity in r-selected species. Many kinds of insects and invasive species exhibitr-selected characteristics. In contrast, a K-selected species has low rates of fecundity, high levels of parental investment in the young, and low rates of mortality as individuals mature. Humans and elephants are examples of species exhibiting K-selected characteristics, including longevity and efficiency in the conversion of more resources into fewer offspring.[149][156]

[edit]Molecular

ecology

Main article: Molecular ecology The important relationship between ecology and genetic inheritance predates modern techniques for molecular analysis. Molecular ecological research became more feasible with the development of rapid and accessible genetic technologies, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The rise of molecular technologies and influx of research questions into this new ecological field resulted in the publication Molecular Ecology in 1992.[157] Molecular ecology uses various analytical techniques to study genes in an evolutionary and ecological context. In 1994, John Avise also played a leading role in this area of science with the publication of his book, Molecular Markers, Natural History and Evolution.[158] Newer technologies opened a wave of genetic analysis into organisms once difficult to study from an ecological or evolutionary standpoint, such as bacteria, fungi and nematodes. Molecular ecology engendered a new research paradigm for investigating ecological questions considered otherwise intractable. Molecular investigations revealed previously obscured details in the tiny intricacies of nature and improved resolution into probing questions about behavioral and biogeographical ecology.[158] For example, molecular ecology revealed promiscuous sexual behavior and multiple male partners in tree swallows previously thought to be socially monogamous.[159] In a biogeographical context, the marriage between genetics, ecology and evolution resulted in a new sub-discipline called phylogeography.[160]

[edit]Human

ecology

Main article: Human ecology Human ecology is the interdisciplinary investigation into the ecology of our species. "Human ecology may be defined: (1) from a bio-ecological standpoint as the study of man as the ecological dominant in plant and animal communities and systems; (2) from a bio-ecological standpoint as simply another animal affecting and being affected by his physical environment; and (3) as a human being, somehow different from animal life in general, interacting with physical and modified environments in a distinctive and creative way. A truly interdisciplinary human ecology will most likely address itself to all three."[161] The term human ecology was formally introduced in 1921, but many sociologists, geographers, psychologists, and other disciplines were interested in human relations to natural systems centuries prior, especially in the late 19th century. [161][162] Some authors have identified a new unifying science in coupled human and natural systems that builds upon, but moves beyond the field human ecology.[163] Ecology is as much a biological science as it is a human science.[6] "Perhaps the most important implication involves our view of human society. Homo sapiens is not an external disturbance, it is a keystone species within the system. In the long term, it may not be the magnitude of extracted goods and services that will determine

sustainability. It may well be our disruption of ecological recovery and stability mechanisms that determines system collapse."[72]:3282

[edit]Relation

to the environment

The environment is dynamically interlinked, imposed upon and constrains organisms at any time throughout their life cycle.[164] Like the term ecology, environment has different conceptual meanings and to many these terms also overlap with the concept of nature. Environment "...includes the physical world, the social world of human relations and the built world of human creation."[165]:62 The environment in ecosystems includes both physical parameters and biotic attributes. The physical environment is external to the level of biological organization under investigation, including abiotic factors such as temperature, radiation, light, chemistry, climate and geology. The biotic environment includes genes, cells, organisms, members of the same species (conspecifics) and other species that share a habitat.[166] The laws of thermodynamics applies to ecology by means of its physical state. Armed with an understanding of metabolic and thermodynamic principles a complete accounting of energy and material flow can be traced through an ecosystem.[167] Environmental and ecological relations are studied through reference to conceptually manageable and isolated parts. Once the effective environmental components are understood they conceptually link back together as a holocoenotic[168] system. In other words, the organism and the environment form a dynamic whole (or umwelt).[169]:252 Change in one ecological or environmental factor can concurrently affect the dynamic state of an entire ecosystem.[170][171]

[edit]Disturbance

and resilience

Main article: Resilience (ecology) Ecosystems are regularly confronted with natural environmental variations and disturbances over time and geographic space. A disturbance is any process that removes living biomass from a community, such as a fire, flood, drought, or predation.[172] Fluctuations causing disturbance occur over vastly different ranges in terms of magnitudes as well as distances and time periods.[173] Disturbances, such as fire, are both cause and product of natural fluctuations in death rates, species assemblages, and biomass densities within an ecological community. These disturbances create places of renewal where new directions emerge out of the patchwork of natural experimentation and opportunity.[172][174] [175] Ecological resilience is a cornerstone theory in ecosystem management. Biodiversity fuels the resilience of ecosystems acting as a kind of regenerative insurance.[175]

[edit]Metabolism

and the early atmosphere

Metabolism the rate at which energy and material resources are taken up from the environment, transformed within an organism, and allocated to maintenance, growth and reproduction is a fundamental physiological trait. Ernst et al.[176]:991

The Earth formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago[177] and environmental conditions were too extreme for life to form for the first 500 million years. During this early Hadean period, the Earth started to cool, allowing a crust and oceans to form. Environmental conditions were unsuitable for the origins of life for the first billion years after the Earth formed. The Earth's atmosphere transformed from being dominated by hydrogen, to one composed mostly of methane and ammonia. Over the next billion years the metabolic activity of life transformed the atmosphere to higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor. These gases changed the way that light from the sun hit the Earth's surface and greenhouse effects trapped heat. There were untapped sources of free energy within the mixture of reducing and oxidizing gasses that set the stage for primitive ecosystems to evolve and, in turn, the atmosphere also evolved.[178]

The leaf is the primary site ofphotosynthesis in most plants.

Throughout history, the Earth's atmosphere and biogeochemical cycles have been in a dynamic equilibrium with planetary ecosystems. The history is characterized by periods of significant transformation followed by millions of years of stability.[179] The evolution of the earliest organisms, likely anaerobic methanogen microbes, started the process by converting atmospheric hydrogen into methane (4H2 + CO2 CH4+ 2H2O). Anoxygenic photosynthesis converting hydrogen sulfide into other sulfur compounds or water (for example 2H2S + CO2 + hv CH2O + H2O + 2S), as occurs in deep sea hydrothermal vents today, reduced hydrogen concentrations and increased atmospheric methane. Early forms of fermentation also increased levels of atmospheric methane. The transition to an oxygen dominant atmosphere (the Great Oxidation) did not begin until approximately 2.4-2.3 billion years ago, but photosynthetic processes started 0.3 to 1 billion years prior.[179][180]

[edit]Radiation:

heat, temperature and light

The biology of life operates within a certain range of temperatures. Heat is a form of energy that regulates temperature. Heat affects growth rates, activity, behavior and primary production. Temperature is largely dependent on the incidence of solar radiation. The latitudinal and longitudinal spatial variation of temperature greatly affects climates and consequently the distribution of biodiversity and levels of primary production in different ecosystems or biomes across the planet. Heat and temperature relate importantly to metabolic activity. Poikilotherms, for example, have a body temperature that is largely regulated and dependent on the temperature of the external environment. In contrast, homeotherms regulate their internal body temperature by expending metabolic energy.[120][121][167] There is a relationship between light, primary production, and ecological energy budgets. Sunlight is the primary input of energy into the planet's ecosystems. Light is composed ofelectromagnetic energy of different wavelengths. Radiant energy from the sun generates heat, provides photons of light measured as active energy in the chemical reactions of life, and also acts as a catalyst for genetic mutation.[120][121][167] Plants, algae, and some bacteria absorb light and assimilate the energy through photosynthesis. Organisms capable of assimilating energy by photosynthesis or through inorganic fixation of H2S are autotrophs. Autotrophsresponsible for primary productionassimilate light energy that becomes metabolically stored as potential energy in the form of biochemical enthalpic bonds.[120][121][167]

[edit]Physical [edit]Water

environments

Main article: Aquatic ecosystem

Wetland conditions such as shallow water, high plant productivity, and anaerobic substrates provide a suitable environment for important physical, biological, and chemical processes. Because of these processes, wetlands play a vital role in global nutrient and element cycles.:29[181]

The rate of diffusion of carbon dioxide and oxygen is approximately 10,000 times slower in water than it is in air. When soils become flooded, they quickly lose oxygen and transform into a lowconcentration (hypoxic - O2 concentration lower than 2 mg/liter) environment and eventually become completely (anoxic) environment where anaerobic bacteria thrive among the roots. Water also influences the spectral composition and amount of light as it reflects off the water surface and submerged particles.[181] Aquatic plants exhibit a wide variety of morphological and physiological adaptations that allow them to survive, compete and diversify these environments. For example, the roots and stems develop large air spaces (Aerenchyma) that regulate the efficient transportation gases (for example, CO2 and O2) used in respiration and photosynthesis. In drained soil, microorganisms use oxygen during respiration. In aquatic environments, anaerobic soil microorganisms use nitrate, manganese ions, ferric ions, sulfate, carbon dioxide and

some organic compounds. The activity of soil microorganisms and the chemistry of the water reduces the oxidation-reduction potentials of the water. Carbon dioxide, for example, is reduced to methane (CH4) by methanogenic bacteria. Salt water plants (or halophytes) have specialized physiological adaptations, such as the development of special organs for shedding salt and osmoregulate their internal salt (NaCl) concentrations, to live in estuarine, brackish, or oceanic environments.[181] The physiology of fish is also specially adapted to deal with high levels of salt through osmoregulation. Their gills form electrochemical gradients that mediate salt excresion in saline environments and uptake in fresh water.[182]

[edit]Gravity
The shape and energy of the land is affected to a large degree by gravitational forces. On a larger scale, the distribution of gravitational forces on the earth are uneven and influence the shape and movement of tectonic plates as well as having an influence on geomorphic processes such as orogeny and erosion. These forces govern many of the geophysical properties and distributions of ecological biomes across the Earth. On a organism scale, gravitational forces provide directional cues for plant and fungal growth (gravitropism), orientation cues for animal migrations, and influence the biomechanics and size of animals.[120] Ecological traits, such as allocation of biomass in trees during growth are subject to mechanical failure as gravitational forces influence the position and structure of branches and leaves.[183] The cardiovascular systems of all animals are functionally adapted to overcome pressure and gravitational forces that change according to the features of organisms (e.g., height, size, shape), their behavior (e.g., diving, running, flying), and the habitat occupied (e.g., water, hot deserts, cold tundra).[184]

[edit]Pressure
Climatic and osmotic pressure places physiological constraints on organisms, such as flight and respiration at high altitudes, or diving to deep ocean depths. These constraints influence vertical limits of ecosystems in the biosphere as organisms are physiologically sensitive and adapted to atmospheric and osmotic water pressure differences.[120] Oxygen levels, for example, decrease with increasing pressure and are a limiting factor for life at higher altitudes.[185] Water transportation through trees is another important ecophysiological parameter where osmotic pressure gradients factor in.[186][187][188] Water pressure in the depths of oceans requires that organisms adapt to these conditions. For example, mammals, such as whales, dolphins and seals are specially adapted to deal with changes in sound due to water pressure differences.[189] Different species of hagfish provide another example of adaptation to deep-sea pressure through specialized protein adaptations.[190]

[edit]Wind and turbulence

The architecture of inflorescence in grasses is subject to the physical pressures of wind and shaped by the forces of natural selection facilitating wind-pollination (oranemophily).[191][192]

Turbulent forces in air and water have significant effects on the environment and ecosystem distribution, form and dynamics. On a planetary scale, ecosystems are affected by circulation patterns in the global trade winds. Wind power and the turbulent forces it creates can influence heat, nutrient, and biochemical profiles of ecosystems.[120] For example, wind running over the surface of a lake creates turbulence, mixing thewater column and influencing the environmental profile to create thermally layered zones, partially governing how fish, algae, and other parts of the aquatic ecology are structured.[193][194] Wind speed and turbulence also exert influence on rates of evapotranspiration rates and energy budgets in plants and animals.[181][195] Wind speed, temperature and moisture content can vary as winds travel across different landfeatures and elevations. The westerlies, for example, come into contact with the coastal and interior mountains of western North America to produce arain shadow on the leeward side of the mountain. The air expands and moisture condenses as the winds move up in elevation which can cause precipitation; this is called orographic lift. This environmental process produces spatial divisions in biodiversity, as species adapted to wetter conditions are range-restricted to the coastal mountain valleys and unable to migrate across the xeric ecosystems of the Columbia Basin to intermix with sister lineages that are segregated to the interior mountain systems.[196][197]

[edit]Fire
Main article: Fire ecology

Forest fires modify the land by leaving behind an environmental mosaic that diversifies the landscape into different seral stages and habitats of varied quality (left). Some species are adapted to forest fires, such as pine trees that open their cones only after fire exposure (right).

Plants convert carbon dioxide into biomass and emit oxygen into the atmosphere.[198]Approximately 350 million years ago (near the Devonian period) the photosynthetic process brought the concentration of atmospheric oxygen above 17%, which allowed combustion to occur.[199] Fire releases CO2 and converts fuel into ash and tar. Fire is a significant ecological parameter that raises many issues pertaining to its control and suppression in management.[200] While the issue of fire in relation to ecology and plants has been recognized for a long time,[201] Charles Cooper brought attention to the issue of forest fires in relation to the ecology of forest fire suppression and management in the 1960s.[202][203] Fire creates environmental mosaics and a patchiness to ecosystem age and canopy structure. Native North Americans were among the first to influence fire regimes by controlling their spread near their homes or by lighting fires to stimulate the production of herbaceous foods and basketry materials.[204] The altered state of soil nutrient supply and cleared canopy structure also opens new ecological niches for seedling establishment.[205][206] Most ecosystem are adapted to natural fire cycles. Plants, for example, are equipped with a variety of adaptations to deal with forest fires. Some species (e.g., Pinus halepensis) cannot germinate until after their seeds have lived through a fire. This environmental trigger for seedlings is called serotiny.[207] Some compounds from smoke also promote seed germination.[208] Fire plays a major role in the persistence and resilience of ecosystems.[174]

[edit]Biogeochemistry
Main article: Biogeochemistry See also: Nutrient cycle Ecologists study and measure nutrient budgets to understand how these materials are regulated, flow, and recycled through the environment.[120][121][167] This research has led to an understanding that there is a global feedback between ecosystems and the physical parameters of this planet including minerals, soil, pH, ions, water and atmospheric gases. There are six major elements, including H (hydrogen), C (carbon), N (nitrogen), O (oxygen), S (sulfur), and P (phosphorus) that form the constitution of all biological macromolecules and feed into the Earth's geochemical processes. From the smallest scale of biology the combined effect of billions upon billions of ecological processes amplify and ultimately regulate thebiogeochemical cycles of the Earth. Understanding the relations and cycles mediated between these elements and their ecological pathways has significant bearing toward understanding global biogeochemistry.[209] The ecology of global carbon budgets gives one example of the linkage between biodiversity and biogeochemistry. For starters, the Earth's oceans are estimated to hold 40,000 gigatonnes (Gt)

carbon, vegetation and soil is estimated to hold 2070 Gt carbon, and fossil fuel emissions are estimated to emit an annual flux of 6.3 Gt carbon.[210] At different times in the Earth's history there has been major restructuring in these global carbon budgets that was regulated to a large extent by the ecology of the land. For example, through the early-mid Eocene volcanic outgassing, the oxidation of methane stored in wetlands, and seafloor gases increased atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentrations to levels as high as 3500 ppm.[211] In the Oligocene, from 25 to 32 million years ago, there was another significant restructuring in the global carbon cycle as grasses evolved a special type of C4 photosynthesis and expanded their ranges. This new photosynthetic pathway evolved in response to the drop in atmospheric CO2 concentrations below 550 ppm.[212] These kinds of ecosystem functions feed back significantly into global atmospheric models for carbon cycling. Loss in the abundance and distribution of biodiversity causes global carbon cycle feedbacks that are expected to increase rates of global warming in the next century.[213] The effect of global warming melting large sections of permafrost creates a new mosaic of flooded areas where decomposition results in the emission of methane (CH 4). Hence, there is a relationship between global warming, decomposition and respiration in soils and wetlands producing significant climate feedbacks and altered global biogeochemical cycles.[214][215] There is concern over increases in atmospheric methane in the context of the global carbon cycle, because methane is also a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more effective at absorbing long-wave radiation than CO2 on a 100 year time scale.[216]

[edit]History
Main article: History of ecology

[edit]Early

beginnings

Ecology has a complex origin due in large part to its interdisciplinary nature.[217] Ancient philosophers of Greece, including Hippocrates and Aristotle were among the first to record their observations on natural history. However, philosophers in ancient Greece viewed life as a static element that did not require an understanding of adaptation, a modern cornerstone of ecological theory.[218] Topics more familiar in the modern context, including food chains, population regulation, and productivity, did not develop until the 1700s through the published works of microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (16321723) and botanist Richard Bradley (1688?1732).[6] Biogeographer Alexander von Humbolt (17691859) was another early pioneer in ecological thinking and was among the first to recognize ecological gradients. Humbolt alluded to the modern ecological law of species to area relationships.[219][220] In the early 20th century, ecology was an analytical form of natural history.[221] Following in the traditions of Aristotle, the descriptive nature of natural history examined the interaction of organisms with both their environment and their community. Natural historians, including James Hutton and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, contributed significant works that laid the foundations of the

modern ecological sciences.[222] The term "ecology" (German: Oekologie) is of a more recent origin and was first coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in his bookGenerelle Morphologie der Organismen (1866). Haeckel was a zoologist, artist, writer, and later in life a professor of comparative anatomy.[223][224]
By ecology we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature-the investigation of the total relations of the animal both to its inorganic and its organic environment; including, above all, its friendly and inimical relations with those animals and plants with which it comes directly or indirectly into contact-in a word, ecology is the study of all those complex interrelations referred to by Darwin as the conditions of the struggle of existence. Haeckel's definition quoted in Esbjorn-Hargens[225]:6

Ernst Haeckel (left) and Eugenius Warming (right), two founders of ecology

Opinions differ on who was the founder of modern ecological theory. Some mark Haeckel's definition as the beginning,[226] others say it was Eugenius Warming with the writing of Oecology of Plants: An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities(1895).[227] Ecology may also be thought to have begun with Carl Linnaeus' research principals on the economy of nature that matured in the early 18th century.[81][228] He founded an early branch of ecological study he called the economy of nature.[81] The works of Linnaeus influenced Darwin in The Origin of Species where he adopted the usage of Linnaeus' phrase on the economy or polity of nature.[223] Linnaeus was the first to frame the balance of nature as a testable hypothesis. Haeckel, who admired Darwin's work, defined ecology in reference to the economy of nature which has led some to question if ecology is synonymous with Linnaeus' concepts for the economy of nature.[228] The modern synthesis of ecology is a young science, which first attracted substantial formal attention at the end of the 19th century (around the same time as evolutionary studies) and become even more popular during the 1960s environmental movement,[222] though many observations, interpretations and discoveries relating to ecology extend back to much earlier studies in natural history. For example, the concept on the balance or regulation of nature can be traced back to Herodotos (died c. 425 BC) who described an early account ofmutualism along the Nile river where crocodiles open their mouths to beneficially allow sandpipers safe access to remove leeches.[217] In the broader contributions to the historical development of the ecological sciences, Aristotle is considered one of the earliest naturalists who had an influential role in the philosophical development of ecological sciences. One of Aristotle's students, Theophrastus,

made astute ecological observations about plants and posited a philosophical stance about the autonomous relations between plants and their environment that is more in line with modern ecological thought. Both Aristotle and Theophrastus made extensive observations on plant and animal migrations, biogeography, physiology, and their habits in what might be considered an analog of the modern ecological niche.[229][230] Hippocrates, another Greek philosopher, is also credited with reference to ecological topics in its earliest developments.[6]

The layout of the first ecological experiment, noted by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species, was studied in a grass garden at Woburn Abbey in 1817. The experiment studied the performance of different mixtures of species planted in different kinds of soils. [231][232]

From Aristotle to Darwin the natural world was predominantly considered static and unchanged since its original creation. Prior to The Origin of Species there was little appreciation or understanding of the dynamic and reciprocal relations between organisms, their adaptations and their modifications to the environment.[233][225] While Charles Darwin is most notable for his treatise on evolution,[234] he is also one of the founders of soil ecology.[235] In The Origin of Species Darwin also made note of the first ecological experiment that was published in 1816. [231] In the science leading up to Darwin the notion of evolving species was gaining popular support. This scientific paradigm changed the way that researchers approached the ecological sciences.[236]
Nowhere can one see more clearly illustrated what may be called the sensibility of such an organic complex,-expressed by the fact that whatever affects any species belonging to it, must speedily have its influence of some sort upon the whole assemblage. He will thus be made to see the impossibility of studying any form completely, out of relation to the other forms,--the necessity for taking a comprehensive survey of the whole as a condition to a satisfactory understanding of any part. Stephen Forbes (1887)[237]

[edit]After

the turn of 20th century

Some suggest that the first ecological text (Natural History of Selborne) was published in 1789, by Gilbert White (17201793).[238] The first American ecology book was published in 1905 by Frederic Clements.[239] In his book, Clements forwarded the idea of plant communities as a superorganism. This publication launched a debate between ecological holism and individualism that lasted until the 1970s. The Clements superorganism concept proposed that ecosystems progress through regular and determined stages of seral development that are analogous to

developmental stages of an organism whose parts function to maintain the integrity of the whole. The Clementsian paradigm was challenged by Henry Gleason.[240] According to Gleason, ecological communities develop from the unique and coincidental association of individual organisms. This perceptual shift placed the focus back onto the life histories of individual organisms and how this relates to the development of community associations.[241] The Clementsian superorganism theory has not been completely rejected, but some suggest it was an overextended application of holism.[115] Holism remains a critical part of the theoretical foundation in contemporary ecological studies.[163] Holism was first introduced in 1926 by a polarizing historical figure, a South African General named Jan Christian Smuts. Smuts was inspired by Clement's superorganism theory as he developed and published on the concept of holism, which contrasts starkly against his racial political views as the father ofapartheid.[242] Around the same time, Charles Elton pioneered the concept of food chains in his classical book "Animal Ecology".[86] Elton[86] defined ecological relations using concepts of food chains, food cycles, food size, and described numerical relations among different functional groups and their relative abundance. Elton's 'food cycle' was replaced by 'food web' in a subsequent ecological text.[243] Ecology has developers in many nations, including Russia's Vladimir Vernadsky and his founding of the biosphere concept in the 1920s[244] or Japan's Kinji Imanishi and his concepts of harmony in nature and habitat segregation in the 1950s.[245] The scientific recognition or importance of contributions to ecology from other cultures is hampered by language and translation barriers. [244]

[edit]See

also

Energy and Environment

Energy
The development of modern civilization has been dependent on both the availability and the advancement of energy. We have witnessed a progression from animal and steam power, to the internal combustion engine and electricity generation and to the harnessing of alternative sources of energy. Because of our reliance on energy sources, it is also important to understand the effects of energy use on the environment. All aspects of energy ? the way it is produced, distributed, and consumed ? can affect local, regional, and global environments through land use and degradation, air pollution, the acidification of water and soils, and through global climate change via greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of our energy stems from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas; yet, the burning of these fuels is a large source of carbon dioxide emissions which contributes to the greenhouse effect. Coal is dominant in the production of electricity, while oil is the world's primary transportation fuel. Natural gas use, most commonly for heating, is growing quickly; however, while cleaner and less carbon intensive than coal and oil, natural gas also emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide. While fossil fuels will remain our largest source of energy for the foreseeable future, they are ultimately finite resources. With concern over domestic supply and reliance on foreign supplies,

increasing costs and environmental impacts, there is an increasing push to utilize alternative fuel sources. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and could be an important factor in our energy future since it can both carry and store energy. As such, hydrogen can be used in a wide variety of applications, from portable devices and stationary sources to transportation vehicles through the use of fuel cells, with the only byproducts being water and heat. Yet, while it can be manufactured from renewable energy sources, the majority of hydrogen is produced by processing fossil fuels which emit pollutants in the process. A significant challenge in the availability of hydrogen energy is the large amount of energy ? fossil, nuclear, hydro ? that will be needed to generate the hydrogen. Nuclear energy provides nearly a fifth of the world's electricity without harmful by-products. Yet, concern over safe storage and disposal of radioactive waste, along with the potential for accidents, radiation contamination and exposure continues. This concern, along with those opposed to nuclear energy, has blocked its advancement as a practical and sustainable energy source. Between increasing costs and concern over the environmental effects related to fossil fuel use, and controversy over the use of nuclear power, research and development in the area of renewable sources of energy continues to flourish. These sources ? wind, solar, geothermal, and water ? have been used in one form or another for many centuries, but require additional advancement before they can become cost-competitive with conventional energy sources. They also face the challenge of providing sufficient amounts of electricity to be a meaningful contributor to our growing power needs. The 2005 Energy Policy Act established a practical approach toward energy development and energy independence for the country. In late 2007, Congress passed another energy bill which will increase CAFE (fuel economy) standards, implement a Renewable Fuels Standard, and seek to improve America?s energy efficiency. However, rather than providing significant economic and environmental benefits, some believe it is a politically-motivated measure that fails to take into consideration economic and market forces. As human consumption of energy continues to increase, further research and development will be necessary to produce alternative and/or renewable sources of energy that are readily available, affordable, and less harmful to the environment than conventional fossil fuels. While our dependence on energy is not likely to decrease, it will be important to foster new innovations in energy technologies with a larger focus on energy efficiency and conservation.

Land use
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Habitat fragmented by numerous roads near theIndiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

'Land use' is also often used to refer to the distinct land use types in zoning. Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness intobuilt environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it" (FAO, 1997a; FAO/UNEP, 1999). [1]
Contents
[hide]

1 Land use and regulation 2 Land use and the environment 3 Urban growth boundaries 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit]Land

use and regulation

Land use practices vary considerably across the world. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization Water Development Division explains that "Land use concerns the products and/or benefits obtained from use of the land as well as the land management actions (activities) carried out by humans to produce those products and benefits." [2] As of the early 1990s, about 13% of the Earth was considered arable land, with 26% in pasture, 32% forests and woodland, and 1.5% urban areas. As Albert Guttenberg (1959) wrote many years ago, "'Land use' is a key term in the language of city planning."[3] Commonly, political jurisdictions will undertake land use planning and regulate the use of land in an attempt to avoid land use conflicts. Land use plans are implemented through land division and use ordinances and regulations, such as zoning regulations.Management consulting firms and [Non-governmental organizations]] will frequently seek to influence these regulations before they are codified.

A land use map of Europe major non-natural land uses include arable farmland (yellow) and pasture (light green)

[edit]Land

use and the environment

Land use and land management practices have a major impact on natural resources includingwater, soil, nutrients, plants and animals. Land use information can be used to develop solutions for natural resource management issues such as salinity and water quality. For instance, water bodies in a region that has been deforested or having erosion will have different water quality than those in areas that are forested. The major effect of land use on land cover since 1750 has been deforestation of temperate regions.[dead link][4] More recent significant effects of land use include urban sprawl, soil erosion, soil degradation, salinization, and desertification.[5] Land-use change, together with use of fossil fuels, are the major anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide, a dominantgreenhouse gas.[6] According to a report by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, land degradation has been exacerbated where there has been an absence of any land use planning, or of its orderly execution, or the existence of financial or legal incentives that have led to the wrong land use decisions, or one-sided central planning leading to over-utilization of the land resources - for instance for immediate production at all costs. As a consequence the result has often been misery for large segments of the local population and destruction of valuable ecosystems. Such narrow approaches should be replaced by a technique for the planning and management of land resources that is integrated and holistic and where land users are central. This will ensure the long-term quality of the

land for human use, the prevention or resolution of social conflicts related to land use, and the conservation ofecosystems of high biodiversity value.

The citadel of Kastellet, Copenhagen that has been converted into a park, showing multiple examples of suburban land use.

[edit]Urban

growth boundaries

The urban growth boundary is one form of land-use regulation. For example, Portland, Oregon is required to have an urban growth boundary which contains at least 20,000 acres (81 km2) of vacant land. Additionally, Oregon restricts the development of farmland. The regulations are controversial, but an economic analysis concluded that farmland appreciated similarly to the other land. [7]

Exploitation of natural resources

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Timber

Main article: Overexploitation

Some exploitation of natural resources is an essential condition of the human existence. This refers primarily to food production and necessities. The exploitation of nature is often done unsustainably and is of increasing concern as the depletion of natural resources fromeconomic growth and population growth ultimately threatens human existence[dubious discuss][citation needed].

[edit]Why

resources are under pressure

Increase in sophistication of technology enabling natural resources to be extracted quickly and efficiently. E.g., in the past, it could take long hours just to cut down one tree only using saws. Due to increased technology, rates of deforestation have greatly increased

A rapid increase in population. This leads to greater demand for natural resources. Cultures of consumerism. Materialistic views lead to gold and diamonds mined and used for jewelry, something unnecessary for human life or advancement.

Excessive demand often leads to conflicts due to intense competition. Organizations such as Global Witness and the United Nations have documented the connection.

Non-equitable distribution of resources.

[edit]See

also

Water resources

Overexploitation of groundwater from anaquifer can result in a peak water curve.[24]

Water resource, such as lakes and aquifers, are usually renewable resources which naturally recharge (the term fossil water is sometimes used to describe aquifers which don't recharge). Overexploitation occurs if a water resource, such as the Ogallala Aquifer, is mined or extracted at a rate that exceeds the recharge rate, that is, at a rate that exceeds the practical sustained yield. Recharge usually comes from area streams, rivers and lakes. An aquifer which has been overexploited is said to be overdrafted or depleted. Forests enhance the recharge ofaquifers in some [25] locales, although generally forests are a major source of aquifer depletion. Depleted aquifers can become polluted with contaminants such as nitrates, or permanently damaged through subsidence or through saline intrusion from the ocean. This turns much of the world's underground water and lakes into finite resources with peak usage [26][27] debates similar to oil. These debates usually centre around agriculture and suburban water usage but generation of electricity from nuclear energy or coal and tar sands mining is also water [28] resource intensive. A modified Hubbert curve applies to any resource that can be harvested faster [24] than it can be replaced. Though Hubbert's original analysis did not apply to renewable resources, their overexploitation can result in a Hubbert-like peak. This has led to the concept of peak water. [edit]Forest

resources

Beech forest Grib Skov, Denmark

Forests are overexploited when they are logged at a rate faster than reforestation takes place. Reforestation competes with other land uses such as food production, livestock grazing, and living space for further economic growth. Historically utilization of forest products, including timber and fuel wood, have played a key role in human societies, comparable to the roles of water and cultivable land. Today, developed countries continue to utilize timber for building houses, and wood pulp for paper. In developing countries almost three billion people rely on wood for heating and [29] cooking. Short-term economic gains made by conversion of forest to agriculture, or overexploitation of wood products, typically leads to loss of long-term income and long term biological productivity. West Africa, Madagascar, Southeast Asia and many other regions have experienced [30] lower revenue because of overexploitation and the consequent declining timber harvests. [edit]Biodiversity

The rich diversity of marine life inhabitingcoral reefs attracts bioprospectors. Many coral reefs are overexploited

Overexploitation is one of the five main activities threatening global biodiversity. The other four [2] activities are pollution, introduced species,habitat fragmentation and habitat destruction. One of the key health issues associated with biodiversity is drug discovery and the availability of [31] medicinal resources. A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from [32] biological sources. Marine ecosystems are of particular interest in this regard. However unregulated and inappropriate bioprospecting can be considered a form of overexploitation which has the potential to degrade ecosystems and increase biodiversity loss, as well as impacting on the rights of the [33][34][35] communities and states from which the resources are taken.
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13. Exploitation of Natural Resources

Last modified: Apr 13, 2011

The Earth's natural resources are vital to the survival and development of the human population. However, these resources are limited by the Earth's capability to renew them. Freshwater, forests and harvesting products are renewable, provided that exploitation does not exceed regeneration. Fossil fuels and metal ores are non-renewable. Although many effects of overexploitation are felt locally, the growing interdependence of nations, and international trade in natural resources, make their demand and sustainable management a global issue. This chapter focuses on major developments in the use of renewable and non-renewable resources in Europe in the context of global trends. Available statistics to monitor changes in the use of natural resources at the global and European levels are described in Box 13A. The use of natural resources by sectors of activity are detailed in Part IV of this report (Chapters 19 to 26).

RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Food, water, forests and wildlife are all renewable resources. For resource use to be sustainable, the consumption rate should be maintained within the capacity of the natural systems to regenerate themselves. Current rates of depletion of the Earth's stocks of renewable resources and levels of

pressure imposed on their regenerative capacity by means of production and consumption might already be, in some cases, beyond this threshold.

NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES
Minerals, oil, gas and coal are non-renewable resources: their use as materials and energy sources leads to depletion of the Earth's reserves. However, the time period during which reserves can be available can be extended by recycling or improving the efficiency of use. Eventually, limitations to the extent to which more efficient processes may expand the use of non-renewable resources stocks will be reached, requiring substitution with renewable resources and restrictions on the volume of activities that can be sustained by existing stocks.

Mineral resources
Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. (See also Mineral resource classification.) Use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be resource depletion. Resource depletion is most commonly used in reference to farming, fishing, mining, and fossil fuels.
Contents
[hide]
[1]

1 Causes of resource depletion 2 Minerals and oil 3 Oil in the Arctic 4 Deforestation

o o o

4.1 Causes 4.2 Environmental impact 4.3 Controlling deforestation

5 Wetlands 6 See also 7 References

[edit]Causes

of resource depletion

Over-consumption/excessive or unnecessary use of resources Non-equitable distribution of resources Overpopulation Slash and burn agricultural practices, currently occurring in many developing countries Technological and industrial development Erosion

Irrigation Mining for oil and minerals Aquifer depletion Forestry Pollution or contamination of resources

[edit]Minerals

and oil

Materials removed from the Earth are needed to provide humans with food, clothing, and housing and to continually upgrade the standard of living. Some of the materials needed are renewable resources, such as agricultural and forestry products, while others are nonrenewable, such as minerals. The USGS reported in Materials Flow and Sustainability (1998) that the number of renewable resources is decreasing; meanwhile there is an increasing demand for nonrenewable resources. Since 1900, the use of construction materials such as stone, sand, and gravel has soared. The large-scale exploitation of minerals began in the Industrial Revolution around 1760 in England and has grown rapidly ever since. Todays economy is largely based on fossil fuels, minerals and oil. The value increases because of the large demand, but the supply is decreasing. This has resulted in more efforts to drill and search other territories. The environment is being abused and this depletion of resources is one way of showing the affects. Mining still pollutes the environment, only on a larger scale. The US government has produced the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 in order to regulate certain aspects of mining but it is truly up to the individual states to regulate it. [edit]Oil

in the Arctic

Oil has become one of the top resources used in America. Drilling for oil has become a major issue. America is more abundant in coal but the effects on the atmosphere are far worse than oil. [who?] Geologists consider northern Alaska to be the last untouched oil field in North America. Some [who?] environmental experts are worried that oil and gas development will seriously harm the area. In 2002, the USGS assessed the NPRA and found a significantly greater supply of petroleum (5,900,000 3 9 3 barrels (940,000 m ) to 13,200,000,000 barrels (2.1010 m )) than previously estimated. Only up to 3 5,600,000,000 barrels (890,000,000 m ) of this petroleum are technically and economically recoverable at existing market prices. The USGS suspects that there may be as much as 83.2 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas in the same area. Transportation of this gas to markets would require a new pipeline. There is already a pipeline system in place for oilthe Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), which lies between the NPRA and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The 2 ANWR is a 19-million-acre (77,000 km ) area of wilderness along the Alaska-Canada border. It, too, is being considered for oil exploration, a move strongly opposed by environmentalists. The future of the refuge lies in the hands of the federal government. The administration of George H. W. Bush made drilling there a major foundation of the national energy policy. Under the Clinton administration oil and mineral development was prohibited within the wildlife refuge. In April 2002, following heated debate; the U.S. Senate killed a proposal by the administration of George W. Bush to let oil companies drill in ANWR. Republicans raised the issue again in the fall of 2003, citing the need for the nation to reduce [2] its dependence on oil imported from the Middle East. [edit]Deforestation Deforestation is the clearing of natural forests by logging or burning of trees and plants in a forested area. As a result of deforestation, presently about one half of the forests that once covered the Earth [3] have been destroyed. It occurs for many different reasons, and it has several negative implications on the atmosphere and the quality of the land in and surrounding the forest.

[edit]Causes One of the main causes of deforestation is clearing forests for agricultural reasons. As the population of developing areas, especially near rainforests, increases, the need for land for farming becomes [4] more and more important. For most people, a forest has no value when its resources arent being used, so the incentives to deforest these areas outweigh the incentives to preserve the forests. For [5] this reason, the economic value of the forests is very important for developing worlds. [edit]Environmental

impact

Because deforestation is so extensive, it has made several significant impacts on the environment, including carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, changing the water cycle, an increase in soil erosion, and a decrease in biodiversity. Deforestation is often cited as a cause of global warming. Because trees and plants remove carbon dioxide and emit oxygen into the atmosphere, the reduction of forests [6] contribute to about 12% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. One of the most pressing issues that deforestation creates is soil erosion. The removal of trees causes higher rates of erosion, increasing risks of landslides, which is a direct threat to many people living close to deforested areas. As forests get destroyed, so does the habitat for millions of animals. It is estimated that 80% of the worlds known biodiversity lives in the rainforests, and the destruction of these rainforests is [7] accelerating extinction at an alarming rate. [edit]Controlling

deforestation
[citation needed]

Efforts to control deforestation must be taken on a global scale. Organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank have started to create programs like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) that works especially with developing countries to use [8] subsidies or other incentives to encourage citizens to use the forest in a more sustainable way. In addition to making sure that emissions from deforestation are kept to a minimum, an effort to educate people on sustainability and helping them to focus on the long-term risks is key to the success of [9] these programs. Reforestation is also being encouraged in many countries in an attempt to repair [10] the damage that deforestation has done. [edit]Wetlands See also: Tyranny of small decisions A wetland is a term used to describe areas that are often saturated by enough surface or groundwater to sustain vegetation that is usually adapted to saturated soil conditions, such as cattails, bulrushes, red maples, wild rice, blackberries, cranberries, and peat moss. Because some varieties of wetlands are rich in minerals and nutrients and provide many of the advantages of both land and water environments they contain diverse species and possibly even form a food chain. When human activities take away resources many species are affected. Many species act as an ecosystem. Years ago people assumed wetlands were useless so it was not a large concern when they were being dug up. Many people want to use them for developing homes etc. On the other side of the argument people believe the wetlands are a vital source for other life forms and a part of the life cycle. Wetlands provide services for: 1) Food and habitat 2) Improving water quality 3) Commercial fishing 4) Floodwater reduction

5) Shoreline stabilization 6) Recreation Some loss of wetlands resulted from natural causes such as erosion, sedimentation (the buildup of soil by the settling of fine particles over a long period of time), subsidence (the sinking of land because of diminishing underground water supplies), and a rise in the sea level. However, 95% of the losses since the 1970s have been caused by humans, especially by the conversion of wetlands to [citation needed] agricultural land. More than half (56%) the losses of coastal wetlands resulted from dredging for marinas, canals, port development, and, to some extent, from natural shoreline erosion. The conversion of wetlands causes the loss of natural pollutant sinks. The dramatic decline in [citation needed] wetlands globally suggests not only loss of habitat but also diminished water quality.

Conservation of natural resources

Natural resource
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Primary resource" redirects here. For original sources used in research, see Primary source.

The rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands is an example of an undisturbed natural resource. Forest provides timber for humans; food and shelter for flora and the fauna. The nutrient cycle between organisms form food chains and biodiversity of species.

The Carson Fall in Mount Kinabalu,Malaysia is an example of undisturbed natural resource. Waterfalls provide spring water for humans, animals and plants for survival and also habitat for marine organisms. The water current can be used to turn turbines for hydroelectric generation.

The ocean is an example of a natural resource. Ocean waves can be used to generate wave power which is arenewable energy. Ocean water is important for salt production and providing habitat for deep water fishes. There are biodiversity of marine species in the sea where nutrient cycles are common.

Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems. Natural resources are derived from the environment. Many of them are essential for our survival while others are used for satisfying our wants. Natural resources may be further classified in different ways.
Contents
[hide]

1 Introduction 2 Classification 3 Depletion 4 Protection 5 Management 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit]Introduction
Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its fundamental level). A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy. There is much debate worldwide over natural resource allocations, this is partly due to increasing scarcity (depletion of resources) but also because the exportation of natural resources is the basis for many economies (particularly for developed nations such as Australia). Some Natural resources can be found everywhere such as sunlight and air, when this is so the resources is known as an ubiquitous (existing or being everywhere) resource. However most resources are not ubiquitous, they only occur in small sporadic areas, these resources are referred to as localized resources. There are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible (will not run out in foreseeable future), these are solar radiation, geothermal energy, and air (though access to clean air may not be). The vast majority of resources are however exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity, and can be depleted if managed improperly. The natural resources are materials, which living organisms can take from nature for the sustance of their life or any components of the natural environment that can be utilized by man to promote his welfare is conidered as a natural resources.

[edit]Classification
There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include source of origin, stage of human use, and by their renewability, these classifications are described below. On the basis of origin, resources may be divided into:

Biotic Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic material), such as forests, animals, birds, and fish and the materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter.

Abiotic Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material. Examples of abiotic resources include land, freshwater, air and heavy metals including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.

Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to in the following ways:

Potential Resources Potential resources are those that exist in a region and may be used in the future. For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of India, having sedimentary rocks but until the time it is actually drilled out and put into use, it remains a potential resource.

Actual Resources Actual resources are those that have been surveyed, their quantity and quality determined and are being used in present times. The development of an actual resource, such as wood processing depends upon the technology available and the cost involved.

Reserve Resources The part of an actual resource which can be developed profitably in the future is called a reserve resource.

Stock Resources Stock resources are those that have been surveyed but cannot be used by organisms due to lack of technology. For example: hydrogen.

Renewability is a very popular topic and many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable:

Renewable resources are ones that can be replenished naturally. Some of these resources, like sunlight, air, wind, etc., are continuously available and their quantity is not noticeably affected by human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources from a human use perspective are classified as renewable only so long as the rate of replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption.

Non-renewable resources are resources that form extremely slowly and those that do not naturally form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By the human use perspective resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the rate of replenishment/recovery, a good example of this are fossil fuels which are in this category because their rate of formation is extremely slow (potentially millions of years), which means they are considered non-renewable from a human use perspective. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without human interference, the most notable of these are the radio-active elements such as uranium, which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them.[1] But coal and petroleum cannot be recycled.[2]

Wind is the natural resource that can be used to generate wind power. These 5MW wind turbines on thiswind farm 28 km off the coast of Belgium

[edit]Depletion
The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve all others. Theodore Roosevelt[3]

In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UNs Agenda 21 Section Two which outlines the necessary steps to be taken by countries to sustain their natural resources. [4] The depletion of natural resources is considered to be a sustainable development issue.[5] The term sustainable development has many interpretations, most notably the Brundtland Commissions to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,[6] however in broad terms it is balancing the needs of the planets people and species now and in the future.[4] In regards to natural resources, depletion is of concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to degrade current environments[7] and potential to impact the needs of future generations.[5] Depletion of Natural Resources is associated with social inequity. Considering most biodiversity are located in developing countries,[8] depletion of this resource could result in losses of ecosystem services for these countries.[9] Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.[10] At present, with it being the year of the forest,[11] there is particular concern for rainforest regions which hold most of the Earth's biodiversity.[11] According to Nelson[12] deforestation and degradation affect 8.5% of the worlds forests with 30% of the Earths surface already cropped. If we consider that 80% of people rely on medicines obtained from plants and of the worlds prescription medicines have ingredients taken from

plants,[9] loss of the worlds rainforests could result in a loss of finding more potential life saving medicines.[13] The depletion of natural resources is caused by direct drivers of change [12] such as Mining, petroleum extraction, fishing and forestry as well as indirect drivers of change such as demography, economy, society, politics and technology.[12] The current practice of Agriculture is another factor causing depletion of natural resources. For example the depletion of nutrients in the soil due to excessive use of nitrogen[12] and desertification[4] The depletion of natural resources is a continuing concern for society. This is seen in the cited quote given by Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known conservationist and former United States president, was opposed to unregulated natural resource extraction.

[edit]Protection
See also: Environmental protection In 1982 the UN developed the World Charter for Nature in which it recognised the need to protect nature from further depletion due to human activity. They state the measures needed to be taken at all societal levels, from international right down to individual, to protect nature. They outline the need for sustainable use of natural resources and suggest that the protection of resources should be incorporated into the law system at state and international level.[14] To look at the importance of protecting natural resources further. The World Ethic of Sustainability, developed by the IUCN, WWF and the UNEP in 1990[15] which set out eight values for sustainability, include the need to protect natural resources from depletion. Since these documents, there have been many measures taken to protect natural resources, some of these ways include Conservation biology and Habitat Conservation. Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates ofextinction.[16][17] It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on sciences, economics, and the practice of natural resource management.[18][19][20][21] The term conservation biology was introduced as the title of a conference held University of California at San Diego in La Jolla, California in 1978 organized by biologists Bruce Wilcox and Michael Soul. Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range.[22]

[edit]Management
Natural resource management is a discipline in the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations.

Management of natural resources involves identifying who has the right to use the resources and who does not for defining the boundaries of the resource.[23] The resources are managed by the users according to the rules governing of when and how the resource is used depending on local condition. [24] A successful management of natural resources should engage the community because of the nature of the shared resources the individuals who are affected by the rules can participate in setting or changing them.[23] The users have the rights to device their own management institutions and plans under the recognition by the government. The right to resources includes land, water, fisheries and pastoral rights.[24] The users or parties accountable to the users have to actively monitor and ensure the utilisation of the resource compliance with the rules and to impose penalty on those peoples who violates the rules.[23] These conflicts are resolved in a quick and low cost manner by the local institution according to the seriousness and context of the offence.[24]

What are the measures taken to conserve mineral resources?

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Minerals are a non-renewable resource. It takes thousands of years for the formation and concentration of minerals. The rate of formation is much smaller than the rate at which the humans consume these minerals. It is necessary to reduce wastage in the process of mining. Minerals can be conserved in by the following measures: Use of improved technologies to allow use of low grade minerals at low costs Using substitutes Use of scrap metals Recycling of metals is good way in which the mineral resources can be conserved. they can be used in a judicious manner

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_measures_taken_to_conserve_mineral_resource s#ixzz1hlM52bo1

Natural hazard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the natural hazards that may lead to disasters. For natural disasters, see natural disaster.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

A natural hazard[1] is a threat of a naturally occurring event that will have a negative effect on people or the environment. Many natural hazards are interrelated, e.g. earthquakes can cause tsunamis and drought can lead directly to famine. It is possible that some natural hazards are intertermporally correlated, as well. [2] A concrete example of the division between a natural hazard and a natural disaster is that the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster, whereas earthquakes are a hazard.
Contents
[hide]

1 Geological hazards

o o o o o

1.1 Avalanche 1.2 Earthquake 1.3 Lahar 1.4 Sinkholes 1.5 Volcanic eruption

2 Climatic and atmospheric hazards

o o o o o o o o o

2.1 Blizzard 2.2 Drought 2.3 Hailstorm 2.4 Heat wave 2.5 Cyclonic storms 2.6 Ice storm 2.7 Tornado 2.8 Climate change 2.9 Geomagnetic storm

3 Wildfire hazard 4 Disease 5 International campaigns 6 See also

7 References

[edit]Geological [edit]Avalanche

hazards

An avalanche is a geophysical hazard a slide of a large snow (or rock) mass down a mountainside, caused when a build up of snow is released down a slope, it is one of the major dangers faced in the mountains in winter. An avalanche is an example of a gravity current consisting of granular material. In an avalanche, lots of material or mixtures of different types of material fall or slide rapidly under the force of gravity. Avalanches are often classified by what they are made of.

[edit]Earthquake

San Francisco was devastated by anearthquake in 1906

An earthquake is a phenomenon that results from a sudden release of stored energy that radiates seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or displacement of the ground and sometimes tsunamis. Most of the world's earthquakes (90%, and 81% of the largest) take place in the 40,000-km-long, horseshoe-shaped zone called the circum-Pacific seismic belt, also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, which for the most part bounds the Pacific Plate. Many earthquakes happen each day, few of which are large enough to cause significant damage.

[edit]Lahar
A lahar is a type of natural disaster closely related to a volcanic eruption, and involves a large amount of material, including mud, rock, and ashsliding down the side of the volcano at a rapid pace. These flows can destroy entire towns in seconds and kill thousands of people.

[edit]Sinkholes
A sinkhole is localized depression in the surface topography, usually caused by the collapse of a subterranean structure, such as a cave. Although rare, large sinkholes that develop suddenly in populated areas can lead to the collapse of buildings and other structures.

[edit]Volcanic

eruption

Puu

A volcanic eruption is the point in which a volcano is active and releases its power, and the eruptions come in many forms. They range from daily small eruptions which occur in places like Kilauea in Hawaii, to megacolossal eruptions (where the volcano expels at least 1,000 cubic kilometers of material)] from supervolcanoes like Lake Taupo (26,500 years ago) and Yellowstone Caldera. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, 70 to 75 thousand years ago, a super volcanic event at Lake Toba reduced the human population to 10,000 or even 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a bottleneck in human evolution. Some eruptions form pyroclastic flows, which are high-temperature clouds of ash and steam that can trial down mountainsides at speed exceeding an airliner.

[edit]Climatic

and atmospheric hazards

Young steer after a blizzard, March 1966

[edit]Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe winter storm icy and windy conditions characterized by low temperatures, strong winds, and heavy snow.

[edit]Drought
Drought is defined as an acute shortage of water and crop failure that results when the average rainfall is very less than the normal. A droughtis an abnormally dry period when there is not enough water to support agricultural, urban or environmental water needs. Extended droughts can result in deaths

by starvation or disease, and can result in wildfires. Scientists warn that global warming may result in more extensive droughtsin coming years.

[edit]Hailstorm
A hailstorm is a natural hazard where a thunderstorm produces numerous hailstones which damage the location in which they fall. Hailstorms can be especially devastating to farm fields, ruining crops and damaging equipment.

[edit]Heat

wave

A heat wave is a hazard characterized by heat which is considered extreme and unusual in the area in which it occurs. Heat waves are rare and require specific combinations of weatherevents to take place, and may include temperature inversions, katabatic winds, or other phenomena. There is potential for longer term events causing global warming, including stadialevents (the opposite to glacial 'ice age' events), or through human induced climatic warming.

[edit]Cyclonic

storms

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane, tropical cyclone, and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon: a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. It is caused by evaporated water that comes off of the ocean and becomes a storm. The Coriolis Effect causes the storms to spin, and a hurricane is declared when this spinning mass of storms attains a wind speed greater than 74 mph (119 km/h). Hurricane is used for these phenomena in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, tropical cyclone in the Indian, typhoon in the western Pacific.

[edit]Ice

storm

An ice storm is a particular weather event in which precipitation falls as ice, due to atmosphere conditions.

[edit]Tornado
A tornado is a natural disaster resulting from a thunderstorm. Tornadoes are violent, rotating columns of air which can blow at speeds between 50 mph (80 km/h) and 300 mph (480 km/h), and possibly higher. Tornadoes can occur one at a time, or can occur in large tornado outbreaksassociated with supercells or in other large areas of thunderstorm development. Waterspouts are tornadoes occurring over tropical waters in light rain conditions.

[edit]Climate

change

Climate change is a long-term hazard which can increase or decrease the risk of other weather hazards, and also directly endangers property due to sea level rise and biological organisms due to habitat destruction.

[edit]Geomagnetic

storm

Geomagnetic storms can disrupt or damage technological infrastructure, and disorient species with magnetoception.

[edit]Wildfire

hazard

A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire burning in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning and drought but wildfires may also be started by human negligence or arson. They can be a threat to those in rural areas and also wildlife. Wildfires can also produce ember attacks, where floating embers set fire to buildings at a distance from the fire itself.

[edit]Disease
Disease is a natural hazard that can be enhanced by human factors such as urbanization or poor sanitation. Disease affecting multiple people can be termed an outbreak or epidemic. In some cases, a hazard exists in that a human-made defense against disease could fail, for example through antibiotic resistance.

[edit]International

campaigns

In 2000, the United Nations launched the International Early Warning Programme to address the underlying causes of vulnerability and to build disaster-resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of Disaster Risk Reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, economic and environmental losses due to hazards of all kinds (UN/ISDR, 2000). The 2006-2007 United Nations International Disaster Reduction Day theme is Disaster reduction education begins in school. The Foundation of Public Safety Professionals has launched an international campaign giving everybody a chance to have their say, thought their international open essay or documentary competition Disaster Risk Reduction Education Begins at School.