Abstract
In this chapter I will try to answer the following questions: How should we apply thermodynamic methods and concepts to ecology; how can we describe the ecosystem’s behavior in the terms of physics (and particularly, thermodynamics); and what kind of physical criteria can be used for the estimation of anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems? From the viewpoint of thermodynamics, any ecosystem is an open system far from thermodynamic equilibrium, in which the entropy production is balanced by the outflow of entropy to the environment. I suggest the “entropy pump” hypothesis: that climatic, hydrological, soil and other environmental conditions are organized in such a way that only a natural ecosystem which is specific for these conditions can be in the dynamic equilibrium (steady state). In the framework of this hypothesis I can calculate the entropy production for an ecosystem under anthropogenic stress.
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