Identification of the Lagoon Ecosystems - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 11

IV
ECOSPHERE

10 4

BIOSPHERE TROPOSPHERE

III
MACROREGIONAL
COMPLEX OF
ECOSYSTEMS
(Macroland or Seascapes)

10 3

Macroregional
assemblage of
biocoenoses or
BIOMs

Macroregional
network of
HGMUs

10 6

5 ×

10 2 II

MACROREGIONAL
COMPLEX OF
ECOSYSTEMS or
(Land and Seascapes)

Regional
complex
of biocoenoses

Regional
network
of HGMUs

10 5

I

EC

HGMU or
BIOTOP

5 × 10 2

BIOCOENOSE

10

Population/
species

0 0

Hierarchy of Life Systems

Hierarchy of Hydrogeomorphological
Units (HGMU)

Hierarchy of Ecological Systems

FIGURE 2.3 Hierarchical organization of the natural, human-transformed, and human-created

physical, chemical, and biological environment. According to existing knowledge concerning
the organization of life, we can distinguish five hierarchical levels above biological individuals
and four spatio-temporal levels within the ecological hierarchy. It must be noted that three-
dimensional space of the hierarchical organization integrates upper lithosphere, ocean basins,
and troposphere, and the time constants of the ecological systems are in years, decades, centuries,
or millennia. (After Vadineanu, A.,

Sustainable Development: Theory and Practice , Bucharest

University Press, Bucharest, 1998. With permission.)