Ecosystem Health

Ecosystem health

The notion of health is a universally understood concept. Thus, as with the similarly afflicted concepts of complexity and stability, it is impossible to agree upon what we mean by health. This is particularly the case when one attempts to go beyond the traditional medical usage (health of an organism) to the more controversial notion of the health of ecosystems.

Ecosystem health is ultimately referring to the ability of a living system, in the most general sense, to adaptively maintain (internal) homeostatic control in the face of perturbations to the system (internal and/or external; structural and/or functional changes). In such a context, it is directly related to the stability concepts of ecosystems and the closely allied notion of sustainable development.

The paper on ecosystem health touches upon many of these ideas.

Ecosystem homeostasis

Ecosystem health is in many ways equivalent to the notion of ecosystem homeostasis, where the focus is upon how homeostasis is maintained and when is it lost.

What are the mechanisms by which a steady internal state is regulated even when the external environment is highly variable?

When do alterations to the internal structures and functions of a system result in the breakdown of this homeostatic stability.

At the organisational scale of cell organelles, cells, endocrine systems, organs and organisms, homeostasis is a well documented phenomenon (e.g., thermoregulation, ion-regulation, hormone regulation). However, at larger organisational scales (e.g., populations, communities, landscapes, ecosystems), more than a century of effort has resulted in only controversy and confusion. In the following document, I try to formulate a coherent perspective upon it. I hope you find it useful.

Further, homeostasis the connection to Onsager’s principle is developed in this paper on order and disorder principles. I will transcribe their contents here into a more digestible form when possible.

References

Choi, J.S. and R.I.C. Hansell. 2024. Onsager’s relations and Ecology. bioRxiv 2023.11.28.569100; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.28.569100