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COMPLEXITY IN ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
Citation:
Cabezas*, H C. COMPLEXITY IN ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. Presented at 2003 Annual Mtg. of AIChE, San Francisco, CA, 11/16-21/2003.
Description:
The enormous complexity of ecosystems is generally obvious under even the most cursory examination. In the modern world, this complexity is further augmented by the linkage of ecosystems to economic and social systems through the human use of the environment for technological purposes. The complexity of the resulting mega-system challenges the limits of human comprehension. In recent historical times, the growth of the human population coupled with increasing use of the environment has engendered major environmental problems. These are such as to raise questions about the long-term sustainability of civilized human existence on planet Earth, and this has created the need for sustainable management of the aforementioned mega-system. Managing this complex mega-system, however, is difficult. We present here a topical rather than an encyclopedic discussion of these issues including: (1) the nature of the connections between ecosystems and the economy, (2) some scenarios and examples using simulated systems and field data, and (3) some principles and criteria that may characterize systems in sustainable regimes. This work is part of a larger multidisciplinary effort at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Risk Management Research Laboratory.