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Potentials and Limitations of Ecosystem Analysis

  • Book
  • © 1987

Overview

Editors:
  1. Ernst-Detlef Schulze

    1. Lehrstuhl für Pflanzenökologie, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

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  2. Helmut Zwölfer

    1. Lehrstuhl für Tierökologie, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies (ECOLSTUD, volume 61)

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XII
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  2. Introduction to the Problem of Ecosystem Analysis

    1. Introduction to the Problem of Ecosystem Analysis

      • E.-D. Schulze, H. Zwölfer
      Pages 1-5

  4. Processes and Functions at the Primary Producer Level

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115
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    2. Preface

      1. Plant Specialization to Environments of Different Resource Availability
        • E.-D. Schulze, F. S. Chapin III
        Pages 120-148
      2. Control of Leaf Carbon Assimilation — Input of Chemical Energy into Ecosystems
        • O. L. Lange, W. Beyschlag, J. D. Tenhunen
        Pages 149-163
      3. Plant Architecture and Resource Competition
        • M. M. Caldwell
        Pages 164-179
      4. Responses to Water and Nutrients in Coniferous Ecosystems
        • S. Linder
        Pages 180-202
      5. Physiological Ecology, Disturbance, and Ecosystem Recovery
        • F. A. Bazzaz, T. W. Sipe
        Pages 203-227
      6. A Hierarchic Approach in Causal Ecosystem Analysis The Calcifuge-Calcicole Problem in Alpine Grasslands
        • A. Gigon
        Pages 228-244
      7. Extinction and Naturalization of Plant Species as Related to Ecosystem Structure and Function
        • H. Sukopp, L. Trepl
        Pages 245-276
      8. Flowers as Food Sources and the Cost of Outcrossing
        • A. Bertsch
        Pages 277-293

  5. Processes and Functions at the Consumer Level

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 295-295
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Keywords

About this book

The identification of inputs and outputs is the first and probably most important step in testing and analyzing complex systems. Following accepted natural laws such as the conservation of mass and the principle of electroneutrality, the input/output analysis of the system, be it steady or in connection with perturbations will reveal the status dynamic, will identify whether changes are reversible or irreversible and whether changing the input will cause a hysteresis response. Moreover, measurements ofinput and output fluxes can indicate the storage capacity ofa system, its resilience to buffer or amplify variations of the external input, and it can identify structural changes. Therefore, to a certain extent, the input/output analysis can facilitate predictions about the ecosystem stability. The measurement of fluxes and the determination of inputs and outputs of eco­ systems are, in many aspects, analogous to measurements done by engineers when testing an electronic apparatus. The first step is the measurement ofthe input/output properties of the instrument as a whole, or ofvarious circuit boards, and the compari· son ofthese with the expected variations of the original design. Varying input and out· put can give valuable information about the stability and the regulatory properties of the device. Nevertheless, only the circuit as an entity has specific properties which cannot be anticipated if the individual components are investigated regardless oftheir position. Also, the instrument as a whole will have different input/output properties than its subcircuits.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Lehrstuhl für Pflanzenökologie, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Ernst-Detlef Schulze

  • Lehrstuhl für Tierökologie, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Helmut Zwölfer

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