Identification of the Lagoon Ecosystems - Coastal Lagoons: Ecosystem Processes and Modeling for Sustainable Use and Development - page 25

• Natural and seminatural ecological systems are able to produce the biological
resources (concentrated energy) and recycle the raw material necessary for
biological productivity, by gradually concentrating solar energy. This com-
plex process is very expensive from an energy point of view. Solar radiation
is a permanent source of energy that helps cover these expenses, while
biological systems are the most efficient converters and dissipative structures.
• Cycling of chemical elements and compounds within the ecological systems
involves transfer, transformation, accumulation, and concentration phenom-
ena. The behavior of chemical elements in an ecological system may be
associated with toxic effects for biological components. The toxic effects
may result in reduction of biological diversity and deterioration of genetic
heritage (including the human population's genetic structure). The distur-
bance of the distribution of certain chemical elements or compounds or the
introduction of new human-made compounds in key compartments, or res-
ervoirs, of an ecological systems may bring about structural and functional
changes in the network of tropho-dynamic modules supporting both the
energy and information flows and biogeochemical cycles (i.e., ecotoxicolog-
ical effects). These effects are propagated and amplified in time and space
due to the accumulation, concentration, and transfer of chemical elements
and compounds as well as their derivatives.
Deterioration of quality and health of ecological systems (including
human populations, particularly through deterioration of their genetic
structures) is possible. Management of transformed or created ecosystems
that neglected the phenomena related to the transformation, concentration,
and remote transfer of chemical elements and compounds in general and
those having a high risk for the biological systems, in particular, are highly
subject to deterioration.
In order to substantiate the above statement, it is necessary to select a
few of the key concepts that could provide a basis for identifying and
understanding the elements of an extremely complex process specific to
ecological systems. This knowledge should improve and strengthen man-
agement of both the SES and the NC and address sustainable use of goals.
At the same time, this knowledge could become a major pillar of an
information system that could develop on the basis of consultation of the
literature and continuous improvement through implementing extensive
and long-term research programs.
• Biogeochemical cycles are based on the ecological system structure
(ecosystems—micro- and macro-landscapes and seascapes — ecosphere)
at which level we can very clearly differentiate the following systems:
(1) the primary cycling system comprised of the dynamic components
of the hydrogeomorphological units and of the troposphere and (2) the
secondary cycling system comprised of the network of tropho-dynamic
modules, which in fact carries out the most active phenomena and pro-
cesses that the biogeochemical cycles depend on ( Figure 2.8) . The com-
partments of the HGMU, represented by soil, parental rock, and
interstitial water in the terrestrial systems, and bodies of water and the