Chapter 1 - Early works in ecology and ecological approaches

Abstract

The main purpose of this chapter is to summarize early developments in ecology and ecological optimization, associated with thermal and ecological research before the year 2000. This involves considerations involving performance functions that are usually linked with the so-called thermodynamic optimization. Further text follows the Schneider and Kay (1995) analysis of data for carbon-energy flows in two aquatic tidal marsh ecosystems adjacent to a large power generating facility on the Crystal River in Florida. The ecosystems considered are “stressed” and “control” systems. The “stressed” ecosystem is exposed to hot water effluent from the nuclear power station. The “control” ecosystem is not exposed to the effluent but is otherwise exposed to the same environmental conditions. All the flows dropped in the stressed ecosystem. It follows that the stress has resulted in the ecosystem shrinking in size, in terms of biomass, its consumption of resources, in material and energy cycling, and its ability to degrade and dissipate incoming energy (Schneider and Kay, 1995). The impact of the effluent from the power station heating water has been to decrease the size of the “stressed” ecosystem and its consumption of resources while impacting on its ability to retain the resources it has captured. This analysis suggests that the function and structure of ecosystems follow the development path predicted by the behavior of nonequilibrium thermodynamic structures and the application of these behaviors to ecosystem development patterns (Schneider and Kay, 1995).