BASIC ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS AND CONSERVATION

People often use the terms ecology and environment as if they meant the same thing. Students, homeowners, politicians, planners, and union leaders speak of "environmental issues" and "ecological concerns. However, scientists use the terms ecology and environment in a more restricted way.

Ecology is the branch of biology that studies relationships between organisms and their environments. This is a very simple definition for a very complex branch of science. Environment has a very different meaning. Most ecologists define the word environment very broadly as anything that affects an organism during its life time. These environmental influences can be divided into two broad categories: biotic environmental factors and abiotic environmental factors.

Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and with their physical and chemical environment (Reiss and Chapman, 2000; Dickinson and Murphy, 1998).

The economic of nature (Haeckel, 1928)

Economic: The study of how and why individuals or groups make decision about the use and distribution of valuable resources (Field, 2006).

Sounds similar with Politic

Definitions, Concepts and Principles

Concept: a general idea that is created by abstracting, drawing away, or removing the uncommon characteristic or characteristics of several particular ideas.

Major concepts

Pool of resources and condition

Various degree of utilization/exploitation

Interconnection among various

professionGroup of individual

performing particular exploitation activities

Individual-independent actor

Concepts: Organism

Behavior: refers to the actions of a system or organism, usually in relation to its environment.

Adaptability: adaptability in the field of organizational management can generally be seen as an ability to change something or oneself to fit to occurring changes. In ecology, adaptability has been described as the ability to cope with unexpected disturbances in the environment

Many other physiological concepts

Concepts: Population

GrowthDecreaseStructure of performance (age, sex, survivorship, etc.)

Limiting factors

Concepts: Community

Diversity & Composition

DominanceEnergy flowsFeatures/Life form

Diversity of job & occupation

Social structureProduction,

Distribution and Consumption

Social characteristics

Concepts: Ecosystem

Interface between the activities and environment

A complexes of people’s activities in managing

natural resources

Principles:

Principles are generally true statements, can be referred to as or base on laws or theories (Bunce, 1993).

Principle can be regarded as proposition among variables or dimensions

Principles in Ecology:

Ecological Principles are generally true statements, can be referred to as or base on laws or theories (Bunce, 1993).

Ecological Principle can be regarded as ecological proposition among variables or dimensions in ecology

Principles in Ecology:

Carrying capacity Every ecosystem has limits in terms of

the size of various populations that it can support.

Every species has certain needs that the community must provide in order for it to survive and continue to exist (Reiss and Chapman, 2000). Total demand on resources =

population x average demand per individual

Carrying capacity

Carrying capacity refers to the number of individuals that can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations.

The carrying capacity for any given area is not fixed. It can be altered by improved technology, but mostly it is changed for the worse by pressures which accompany a population increase.

Carrying capacity

The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment. In population biology, carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load

Principles in Ecology:

Limiting Factors In the natural world, limiting factors (i.e. the availability of food, water, shelter and space) can affect the populations of animals and plants (Hanks, 1996). In fact, a species may have a wide range of tolerance for one factor but a narrow range of tolerance for another. For example, species of: Terrestrial Ecosystems- limiting factors are temperature, water, light, nutrients, etc. Aquatic Ecosystems - limiting factors are salinity, temperature, sunlight, dissolved oxygen, nutrients,

Principles in Ecology:

Scientific laws with ecological relevance: Example 1: The first & second law of thermodynamics (Jones, 1997) 1st law, energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be changed from one form into another. 2nd law there is no loss of total energy, but there is a loss of useful energy

Principles in Ecology:

Diversity-Stability

One rationale for maintaining biodiversity is a presumed relationship between the number of species in a community and the stability of the community.

Elton’s 6 reasons

1. simple models fluctuate more than complex models

2. the more pathways available for energy to reach a consumer, the less severe the consequences of losing one pathway (redundancy)

3. agricultural monocultures more prone to pest outbreaks than mixed communities

4. pest outbreaks rare in tropical ecosystems (more diverse than temperate)

5. population cycles occur primarily in species-poor ecosystems (arctic regions)

6. invasion by new species is easiest in oceanic islands that are species-poor

Principles in Ecology:

Stability – A system is stable if and only if the variables all return to initial equilibrium state after a perturbation (Pimm 1986) {a mathematical definition of stability} 4 components:

Resilience – speed of return to equilibrium

Persistence – the time a variable lasts before

changing to a new value

Resistance – how large a disturbance is needed to

perturb system Variability – the normal range of

values at equilibrium

Principles in Ecology:

Productivity

Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) is the rate at

which an ecosystem's producers capture and

store chemical energy as biomass. Net Primary

Productivity (NPP) is GPP minus the rate at

which producers use stored chemical energy in

their biomass. This is the basic food source for

all consumers. It is estimated that humans

waste 27% of the world's NPP (Jones, 1997).

Principles in Ecology:

Population growth

Population is the function of times

Population growth is determined by many circumstances , mainly the availability of resources. Sustainable in term of resources availability is a key factor determining the population outbreak.

Population Growth among pessimists

The pessimistic viewpoint on population growth is that they think that a population which has a high growth rate will put a strain on resources. They believe that there will not be enough resources to be able to supply the large population.

Negative consequences of population growth on: Economic growthPoverty and InequalityEducationHealthFoodEnvironmentInternational migration

Population growth in the eye of Malthus

In 1798, Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population, describing his theory of quantitative development of human populations:

“ I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, that food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. These two laws, ever since we have had any knowledge of mankind, appear to have been fixed laws of our nature, and, as we have not hitherto seen any alteration in them, we have no right to conclude that they will ever cease to be what they now are, without an immediate act of power in that Being who first arranged the system of the universe, and for the advantage of his creatures, still executes, according to fixed laws, all its various operations. ...

Assuming then my postulata as granted, I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.

—Malthus 1798, Chapter 1

Population growth in the eye of Malthus

Thomas Malthus' Theory of Population that was proposed more than two centuries ago, foretold the problems of food shortage that the world is facing today, due to uncontrolled increase in population. Although not foolproof, the theory influenced the formulation of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.

Review towards Malthus’ theory

Thomas Malthus based his theory on the population explosion that was already becoming evident in the 18th century, and argued that the number of people would increase faster than the food supply. Population would eventually reach a resource limit (overpopulation), and any further increase would result in a population crash, caused by famine, disease, or war.

Malthus was not optimistic about the outcome and suggested that only ‘moral restraint’ (birth control) could prevent crisis. More recently, famines in Ethiopia and other countries, where drought, civil war, and poverty have reduced agricultural output, might suggest that he was correct. In the USA, the UK, and other developed countries, the agrarian revolution boosted food production, and contraception led to a decline in birth rate; and in some countries, such as China, population control policies have been introduced.

Review towards Malthus’ theory

Ester Böserup wrote in her book The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure, that population levels determine agricultural methods, rather than agricultural methods determining population (via food supply). A major point of her book is that "necessity is the mother of invention".

Julian Simon was one of many economists who challenged the Malthusian catastrophe, citing (1) the existence of new knowledge, and educated people to take advantage of it, and (2) "economic freedom", that is, the ability of the world to increase production when there is a profitable opportunity to do so.

The economist Henry George argued that Malthus didn't provide any evidence of a natural tendency for a population to overwhelm its ability to provide for itself. George wrote that even the main body of Malthus' work refuted this theory; that examples given show social causes for misery, such as "ignorance and greed... bad government, unjust laws, or war," rather than insufficient food production.

Garret Hardyn’s Theory

"The Tragedy of the Commons," written by Garrett Hardin and first published in the journal Science in 1968.

The tragedy of the commons can be considered in relation to environmental issues such as sustainability. The commons dilemma stands as a model for a great variety of resource problems in society today, such as water, land, fish, and non-renewable energy sources such as oil and coal.

The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen.

Garret Hardyn’s Theory

At the beginning of his essay, Hardin draws attention to problems that cannot be solved by technical means, i.e., as distinct from those with solutions that require "a change only in the techniques of the natural science, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of morality". Hardin contends that this class of problems includes many of those raised by human population growth and the use of the Earth's natural resources.

To make the case for "no technical solutions," Hardin notes the limits placed on the availability of energy (and material resources) on earth, and also the consequences of these limits for “quality of life" To maximize population, one needs to minimize resources spent on anything other than simple survival, and vice versa. Consequently, he concludes that there is no foreseeable technical solution to increasing both human populations and their standard of living on a finite planet.

DebatePessimists vs

optimists

For some time there has been an ongoing conflict between environmental pessimists such as Paul Ehrlich and Norman Myers and environmental optimists such as Julian Simon and Boserup. The conflict is characterized by extremely divergent views on the existence and significance of many, mainly global, environmental problems.

Population Growth among optimists

Population is not the problem but the following are: Population distributionUnderdevelopmentResource depletion and environmental degradation

Subordination of women

Population Growth among optimists

Optimists believe that the 2006 population level of over six billion may be supported by current resources, or that the global population may grow to ten billion and still be within the Earths carrying capacity.

The falling rates of population growth in some parts of the world and, (the population decrease in some parts ?) and because the rapid innovation of science and technologies, there is little problem with overpopulation. Optimists claim that there will be no mass starvation due to a shortage of arable land.

Population growth an its implication

Population growth an its implication

What is the earth’s carrying capacity for the human population?  The answers to this question have ranged from a low of 500,000 to a high of tens of billions [Cohen – p 402-418].  Most of these estimates are little more than ideologically driven guesses.  The question cannot be answered without considering consumption levels, and the technologies used to generate the consumption. 

Population growth an its implication

The Ecological Footprint data (see Measuring Scale: Ecological Footprint) suggest that 3 – 4 planets with the earth’s bio-productive capacity would be required to support the current population at the consumption level of North Americans. Even more productive land would be required to support a growing population that consumes at this level. This is clearly a physical impossibility with current technologies.  Either technologies must increase resource productivity by more than a factor of four, or consumption levels must decline, or population must decline.

Ecological Footprint

AMONG THE OPTIMISTS, SOME NOTIFICATIONS of THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGIES;

Sciences and technologies (the soft components of development)for better future

There are four aspects of its application towards sustainable planet

4 aspects that should be covered by the Sciences and Technologies’ Application

Environmental Aspects. One important point of view of not be worsening the environment toward the sustainability of the developmental projects.

Organizational aspects. Related with the professionalism and management.

Technical aspects. Related with the development of skills, techniques and tools.

Cultural aspects. The application of sciences and technologies should be based on the cultural of its society (rural and urban).

1. The act of conserving;  prevention of injury, decay, waste, or loss; preservation: conservation of wildlife; conservation of human rights.

2. Official supervision of rivers, forests, and other natural resources in order to preserve and protect them through prudent management.

3. A district, river, forest, etc., under such supervision. 4. The careful utilization of a natural resource in order to prevent depletion.

Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth’s biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats and ecosystem from excessive rates of extinction. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on sciences, economics, and the practice of natural resources management.

1. Conserving and managing representative examples of ecosystem

2. Maintaining essential ecological processes and variety of nature through.

3. Conserving biological diversity at all level

4. Practicing recycling, reusing and reducing consumable goods and products and selecting environmentally friendly products

5. Respecting traditional knowledge in managing natural resources

6. Building attitude towards a good institutional ecology