Ecosystems

Contents:

Articles, Videos, Recommended Reading

Mass extinction, when more than half of all the species on Earth may die out during this century, is mainly due to the destruction of ecosystems.  But those ecosystems give us water and safety, so their loss contributes to the global water crisis and escalating disaster risks. They also store carbon, so damaging them releases greenhouse gases and increases global warming.

Living systems are made up of ecological, evolutionary and spatial relationships among organisms and lineages, metabolisms and the flow of energy and materials within and between organisms, and creative and destructive processes at all scales.  The information content of a living system is one of its key attributes and is known as its biodiversity.  A living system, such as an organism or ecosystem, is organised (in a dynamic, tumbling trajectory through space-time) with reference to its information content, which is continuously changing as relationships fail or succeed, mechanisms of energy and nutrient exchange out-compete each other or are out-competed, and solar energy, water or other key inputs ebb and flow.  Biodiversity thus reflects the entire history of the system, but particularly its last couple of generations. - By Dr Julian Caldecott

The term "ecosystem" was created in 1930 by Roy Clapham to denote the combined physical and biological components of an environment.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every other element in their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (ie: exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem."

The human ecosystem concept is then grounded in the deconstruction of the human/nature dichotomy and the premise that all species are ecologically integrated with each other, as well as with the abiotic constituents of their biotope.

Articles:
How condoms could save the forests Monday, 10 May 2010

Delving the deep: We know virtually nothing about deep water ecology and trawling these depths risks destroying countless future resources
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 12:55
Resources:
MEDICINES FROM THE DEEP The Importance of Protecting the High Seas from Bottom Trawling
GreenPeace: CITES – Last Chance for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
DSCC: Review of the implementation of the provisions of UN GA resolution 61/105 related to the management of high seas bottom fisheries
GreenPeace: While stocks last...Greenpeace recommendations to ensure they do.
GreenPeace: Whaling on Trial – Japan’s Whale Meat scandal and the trial of the Toyko two

Climate impact and solutions Author Peter Bunyard
13 January 2010 
Slash and burn farming Wednesday, 06 January 2010
The Essential Role of the Amazon Author Peter Bunyard
Tuesday, 01 December 2009
10 Tips to Help Prevent Tropical Rainforest Deforestation
Thursday 24 September 2009 
Coral Reef Survival: Our Planet’s Works of Art
Thursday 16 July 2009

Examples of Eco-Systems

Videos:
Dove Onslaught(er)
A film about palm Oil. Paradise Forests of South East Asia

Deep Water Ecology :

Books We Recommend:

High Noon By J F Rischard
In this age of instant communication and biotechnology, on this ever-smaller planet, what kinds of problems have we created for ourselves? How do we tackle them in a world where the accustomed methods used by nation-states may be reaching their natural limits? In High Noon, J. F. Rischard challenges us to take a new approach to the twenty most important and urgent global problems of the twenty-first century. Rischard finds their common thread: we don't have an effective way of dealing with the problems that our increasingly crowded, interconnected world creates. Our difficulties belong to the future, but our means of solving them belong to the past.

Heat By George Monbiot
Monbiot demonstrates how a necessary 90% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 can be acheived - without bringing civilisation to an end. Combining his unique knowledge of campaigning and environmental science, he shows how we can transform our houses, our power and our transport systems. But he also shows that this can happen only with a massive programme of action which no government has yet been prepared to take. His exciting, disturbing ideas expose the cowardice of our politicians. By showing that we can save the biosphere without losing our comfort and security, Monbiot sweeps away their perpetual excuse for doing nothing: that it would be too painful and expensive to sustain life on earth.