Fundamental Processes in Ecology An Earth Systems Approach

by Wilkinson, David M.

• ISBN13: 9780198568469
• ISBN10: 0198568460
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780191551857
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Fundamental Processes in Ecology presents a way to study ecosystems that is not yet available in ecology textbooks but is resonant with current thinking in the emerging fields of geobiology and Earth System Science. It provides an alternative, process-based classification of ecology andproposes a truly planetary view of ecological science. To achieve this, it asks (and endeavours to answer) the question, what are the fundamental ecological processes which would be found on any planet with Earth-like, carbon based, life?The author demonstrates how the idea of fundamental ecological processes can be developed at the systems level, specifically their involvement in control and feedback mechanisms. This approach allows us to reconsider basic ecological ideas such as energy flow, guilds, trade-offs, carbon cycling andphotosynthesis; and to put these in a global context. In doing so, the book puts a much stronger emphasis on microorganisms than has traditionally been the case. The integration of Earth System Science with ecology is vitally important if ecological science is to successfully contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global change. Although the approach is heavily influenced by Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, this is not a popularscience book about Gaian theory. Instead it is written as an accessible text for graduate student seminar courses and researchers in the fields of ecology, earth system science, evolutionary biology, palaeontology, history of life, astrobiology, geology and physical geography.

Author Biography

David M. Wilkinson is Reader in Environmental Science in the School of Biological and Earth Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University. He has wide interests within the environmental and biological sciences, where much of his research is on theoretical topics within evolutionary ecology, biogeography and Earth systems science. In addition he is involved in more empirical research on soil protozoa, environmental archaeology and the history of science. His teaching covers a diverse range of topics from the history of geology to forensic archaeology, but centres on various aspects of ecology.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Part I. Introduction
1. Introducing the thought experiment	3	(14)
1.1. The entangled bank	3	(1)
1.2. The entity approach	4	(2)
1.3. A process-based approach	6	(4)
1.4. Gaian effect	10	(2)
1.5. Overview	12	(5)
Part II. The fundamental processes
2. Energy flow	17	(7)
2.1. The second law of thermodynamics	17	(1)
2.2. Schr6dinger, entropy, and free energy	17	(4)
2.3. Sources of free energy	21	(1)
2.4. Maximum entropy production and planetary ecology	21	(2)
2.5. Overview	23	(1)
3. Multiple guilds	24	(16)
3.1. The importance of waste	24	(3)
3.2. The requirement for multiple guilds	27	(3)
3.3. Parasites and predators	30	(4)
3.4. Parasites introduce a potentially important mechanism for density-dependent regulation	34	(4)
3.5. Other effects of parasites	38	(1)
3.6. Overview	39	(1)
4. Tradeoffs and biodiversity	40	(17)
4.1. The problem of biodiversity	40	(3)
4.2. Tradeoffs illustrated by human sporting performance	43	(1)
4.3. Tradeoffs in ecology	44	(5)
4.4. Tradeoffs and biodiversity	49	(1)
4.5. The Gaian effect of biodiversity	50	(5)
4.6. Overview	55	(2)
5. Ecological hypercycles—covering a planet with life	57	(11)
5.1. Darwin's earth worms	57	(1)
5.2. Hypercycles in ecology	57	(3)
5.3. Covering a planet with life	60	(1)
5.4. Why would persistent restricted ecologies be unlikely?	61	(3)
5.5. The end of life on a planet	64	(3)
5.6. Overview	67	(1)
6. Merging of organismal and ecological physiology	68	(14)
6.1. From beavers to planetary ecology	68	(1)
6.2. Daisyworld	69	(5)
6.3. Examples of the role of life in planetary physiology on Earth	74	(3)
6.4. The importance of biomass, an illustration from the Earth's past	77	(2)
6.5. Biomass and Gaia	79	(2)
6.6. Overview	81	(1)
7. Photosynthesis	82	(14)
7.1. Quantification and mysticism in the seventeenth century	82	(1)
7.2. The diversity of photosynthesis on Earth	83	(3)
7.3. Photosynthesis and the Earth System	86	(1)
7.4. Oxygen and the Earth System	87	(6)
7.5. Is photosynthesis a fundamental process?	93	(2)
7.6. Overview	95	(1)
8. Carbon sequestration	96	(21)
8.1. Carbon sequestration and landscape change in northwest England	96	(1)
8.2. A tale of two cycles: the short- and long-term carbon cycles	97	(3)
8.3. The role of life: from geochemical cycles to biogeochemical cycles	100	(4)
8.4. The co-evolution of plants and CO2 on Earth	104	(1)
8.5. Oxygen and carbon sequestration on Earth	105	(1)
8.6. Humans and carbon sequestration	106	(6)
8.7. Carbon sequestration as a fundamental process	112	(2)
8.8. Overview	114	(3)
Part III. Emerging systems
9. Nutrient cycling as an emergent property	117	(7)
9.1. The paradox of the Goldfish	117	(1)
9.2. Tradeoffs and in vitro evolution	118	(1)
9.3. The emergence of biogeochemical cycles	119	(1)
9.4. Cycling ratios and biotic plunder	120	(3)
9.5. Overview	123	(1)
10. Historical contingency and the development of planetary ecosystems	124	(7)
10.1. Carus and the thunder bolt: chance and change in history	124	(1)
10.2. Historical contingency and ecology	125	(3)
10.3. Historical contingency and the Earth System	128	(1)
10.4. Overview	129	(2)
11. From processes to systems	131	(11)
11.1. An Earth Systems approach to ecology	131	(3)
11.2. Cybernetics, regulation, and Gaia	134	(1)
11.3. Rotten apples: a conceptual model of the evolution of Gaia	134	(3)
11.4. Conservation biology and the Earth System	137	(2)
11.5. Concluding remarks	139	(3)
Glossary	142	(8)
References	150	(23)
Index	173