Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
1
Introduc
tion to Ecosystem
Science
Kathleen C. Weathers, David L. Strayer, and Gene E. Likens
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY
Humans have devised many intellectual systems to understand and manage the com-
plicated world in which we live, from physics to philosophy to economics. In this topic,
we present one such intellectual system, ecosystem science, that tries to make sense of the
complex natural world and help us better manage it. As you will see, ecosystems can be
highly varied in size and character, from a little pool of water in a tree cavity, to a red-
wood forest, to a neighborhood in a city, to a frigid river, to the entire globe (
Figure 1.1
).
Nevertheless, a common set of tools and ideas can be used to analyze and understand
these varied and complicated systems. The results of these analyses are both intellectually
satisfying and useful in managing our planet for the benefit of humankind and nature.
Indeed, because of the growing demands placed on the living and nonliving resources by
humans, it could be argued that ecosystem science is one of the essential core disciplines
needed to understand and manage the modern planet Earth.
This topic defines the ecosystem, describes the chief characteristics of ecosystems and
the major tools that scientists use to analyze them, and presents major discoveries that
scientists have made about ecosystems. It also lays out some of the important questions
for the future. This topic is not specifically about ecosystem management, but throughout
the topic some of the management implications of ecosystem science are described.
WHAT IS AN ECOSYSTEM?
An ecosystem is the interacting system made up of all the living and nonliving objects in a spec-
ified volume of space.
This deceptively simple definition both says much and leaves out much. First, as with
other systems (
Box 1.1
), ecosystems contain more than one object, and those objects inter-
act. More surprisingly, living and nonliving objects are given equal status in ecosystem sci-
ence. A particle of clay and the plant drawing its nutrition from that clay are both parts of
