Ecoinformatics and Soil-Plant Formations - New Ecoinformatics Tools in Environmental Science: Applications and Decision-making - page 636

An extreme complexity of the discussed problem is that it is necessary to explain
(and, as far as possible, to predict) the dynamics of the interactive system “ nature

-

society first here since its functioning determines its

impact on nature) with its numerous feedbacks, nonlinear nature, and

” (the society should be placed

“ surprises ” .

Unfortunately, the present stage of studies of the system can be

considered not more than initial and preliminary. This refers to even a simple
description of the present condition of nature (global ecosystems), which results
from the observational data de

“ nature society ”

-

cit with an apparent abundance of some observa-
tional means (especially expensive space-borne means). Therefore the reports of the
World Resources Institute (WRI 2011, 2012) are in many respects incomplete,
being concentrated only in consideration of five types of ecosystems (the share of

land surface is given in brackets, except the Antarctic and Greenland occupied by
the respective ecosystem): agricultural ecosystems (28 %), coastal regions (22 %
within a 100-km band), forest (22 %), fresh-water (<1 %), and grass (41 %) eco-
systems. An abandonment of the World Ocean is, of course, a serious, though
justi aw.

Special attention should be also paid to the soil ecosystems. These ecosystems
are very important for the solution of various problems of human life support and
regulation of the environmental conditions (Table 8.1 ). Human use of the land
surface includes about 2 % for habitation, roads, and the like; 12 % for crops; 25 %
for livestock grazing; and exploitation one way or another of 30 % more in forests
or tree farms. The remaining 20 % is mostly deserts, mountaintops, and other places
with inhospitable climates. People also mobilize minerals at rates far above those of
natural processes and are changing the composition of the atmosphere in potentially
dangerous ways. In 1986, a study found that humanity had already destroyed or was
co-opting almost the half of the planet

ed (in view of information de cit) fl

' s NPP, thus interfering in many ways with

the biosphere ' s present and future capacity to support the human population

(Ehrlich and Ehrlich 2009).
The authors of the report of the World Resources Institute (WRI 2011, 2012)
have brie y summarized the anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystems during the

civilization development, beginning from an intensive application of the irrigation
systems during the Shumer civilization, which had led to soil salinization, to the
present global processes of atmospheric pollution and the ozone layer depletion
(Kondratyev and Varotsos 2000; Sivasakthivel and Reddy 2011). The data of
Table 8.2 characterize the most important aspects of anthropogenic impacts on the
ecosystems nowadays.
There are numerous examples of destructive (and even catastrophic) impacts on
ecosystems and their economic consequences (see for details Grigoryev and
Kondratyev 2001). The collapse of cod catch in 1990 in the sea regions of Canada
resulted in about 30 thousand

fl

fishermen unemployed, and only in the region of
Newfoundland brought forth serious economic dif

culties in 700 settlements.

10 9 $US/year have resulted from a de

×

Material losses in China reaching 11.2 cit

of drinking water due to polluted river and sub-soil waters. In India, the commercial
forest cutting and the transformation of the deforested lands into the agricultural