Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.5 Conceptional ecosystem model with input and output side following Patten (1978) and
Odum (1997)
chemical nutrients, and information processing by the organisms. Systems ecology
proceeded in a controversial way. The International Biological Programme (IBP),
established in 1962, executed 1964-1974, was the first global attempt to provide a
quantitative overview across different ecosystem types. The co-ordinator was C.H.
Waddington (1905-1975). Representative ecosystems were identified and biotic
inventories and quantitative trophic relations were investigated with a comparably
large effort (Worthington 1975). For the first time, a large international effort was
centred on ecosystems research including co-ordinated modelling efforts. Conti-
nuations of the research efforts provided model approaches that were quite impor-
tant in the understanding of the forest decline, which was a large-scale phenomenon
as a consequence of acidification of precipitation through industrial emissions
during the 1970s and eighties (Bossel 1986, 1996).
Forrester, Meadows, Patten, Joergensen: Ecological
Systems and Interdisciplinary Linkages
The systems approach has been continuously elaborated since the 1950s. Methods
were developed that allowed to link knowledge from different disciplines in co-
ordinated research frameworks. The interdisciplinary methods are described in
further detail in Chap. 4. Origins were in systems philosophy (von Bertalanffy),
and in industrial dynamics. Forrester (1961) developed a systems approach that he
initially applied to understand complex matter flows in industry and the relating
economic flows. The approach was subsequently generalized (Forrester 1969) and
applied in a global environmental context (Meadows et al. 1972). Bernhard Patten
(1976) exemplified the applicability for systems ecology. The strength of the
approach was in facilitating an interdisciplinary understanding, to structure com-
plex research tasks and to organize larger consortia of researchers contributing to an
overall goal. With numerous works of Joergensen, e.g. his activity to establish
the Journal
Ecological Modelling
in 1975, with the compilation of Textbooks
(Joergensen 1986) and handbooks (e.g. Joergensen 1979), and the establishment
