• The progression from immature biological

communities to mature and climax

communities is an ecological succession.

• Example:

Ecological • > In western Japan, short grasses and small

annual flowering plants generally mark the

Succession first stage of succession. eventually, shrubs

and young trees are there. If the soil is deep,
the first forest is a mixture of deciduous oak
trees and other tree samplings and shrubs.
• > These oaks are replaced by shii and Kashii
trees to form a climax forest.
• If soil is shallow, then the Climax forest is Pine.
 but sites with similar
physical conditions can
Sites with similar physical
have very different
conditions have similar
ecosystems because they
ecological successions.
are in different stages of
the same succession.
 It follows a complex cycle of growth; equilibrium;
dissolution; and reorganization.
Grasses and shrubs are in the growth stages of
succession. (immature, relatively few species, no
Ecological competition, grow faster)

succession is Climax community (Equilibrium, largest no. of species)

The climax community is destroyed by some kind of
cyclic in disturbance(fire) leading to the dissolution stage.
(most of the plants animal species disappear)
Nature. New arriving species lead to the reorganization stage.
(Competition is less, and survival is easy for new
species)
 Negative feedback acts to keep the biological community the same.

Interaction of Negative feedback can keep an ecosystem in one stage of ecological

succession until there is enough change in some part of the ecosystem
to trigger a positive feedback loop that changes the ecosystem to the
positive and next stage of succession.

negative Example: Grass and Shrub

feedback in
ecological Initially, Grass intercepts all the rainwater and limits the supply of it to
the roots of shrubs to maintain the grass ecosystem. (negative
succession feedback)

Frequent fires are a negative feedback mechanism that prevents

excessive accumulation of leaf litter in forest ecosystems
 Neighbourhood
of city
experience
City grows first
changes in its
social system.
(25-100 years)
Urban
Succession
Neighbouhoods Cities decline as
becomes focus of growth
commercial and shifts from one
industrial. city to another.
 1. Pasture degradation due to Desertification (change of
Overgrazing grassland to desert ecosystem)

Human
Induced
As Overgrazing leads to erosion
of topsoil its capacity to hold 2. Fisheries Succession:
more water declines.

Succession:
During the 1940s and 1950s,
Valuable Commercial fishes to the sardine population off the
trash fishes. California coast declined and
was replaced by anchovies.
 Ecosystems continue to be ‘okay’ as long
The as people do not change them too much.
‘okay/not
okay’ If an ecosystem is altered drastically,
natural and social forces can transform it
principle of even more into a different stability
domain that may be okay but often is not.
human-
induced Changing an ecosystem too much can
succession make it turn into something that is not
good.
 MANAGING
SUCCESSION
• Traditional Management:
• Oak forests were more useful than the more mature shii
and kashi forests because oaks grow faster.
• The villagers used a very simple procedure to ensure
that they had enough oak forest to meet their needs.
• Each year they cut all the oaks in a small area, doing so
in a way that allowed new oak trees to sprout from the
stumps of the cut trees.
• New oaks could grow so fast that within 20 to 25 years
they were once again ready for cutting. They also cut
young shii trees so that they can’t replace oak trees.
Now, not cut at regular basis.
Forest fire protection
• Fires have an important function for
forests.
• Fallen leaves contain minerals such as
phosphorous and potassium that the
ashes from a fire return to the soil as
mineral nutrients for trees and other
forest plants and they prevent excessive
accumulation of leaves litter.
• Controlled Burning is a solution.
COEVOLUTION AND
COADAPTATION OF
HUMAN SOCIAL SYSTEMS
AND ECOSYSTEMS
• Coevolution (changing together)
• Coadaptation (fitting together).
Coadaptation of People
and mosquitoes:
• The French moved colonial Vietnam people from low
land to the mountains for work in rubber plantations.
• They died of Malaria when they were forced to live in
the Mountains.
• But the local people of the mountains used to have
their houses raised above ground and they keep their
animals below and cooking fire inside (Social), have
coadaptation to mosquitoes and malaria. (ecosystem)
• Their house design was a product of centuries of cultural
evolution that adapted their buildings to all of their
needs, including health.
Controlled burning
by Native Americans

• Native Americans knew the Value of

controlled burning long before
Europeans came to North America.
• Because Native Americans coevolved
with North American ecosystems for
thousands of years, their social system
and their technology for using land were
highly adapted to a sustainable
relationship with the environment.
• coadaptation
 COEVOLUTION
Mosquitoes evolved DDT resistance in response to a high death rate
imposed by DDT.
COEVOLUTION OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM
AND ECOSYSTEM FROM TRADITIONAL TO
MODERN AGRICULTURE
• Before the Industrial Revolution, people were very much aware of environmental
limitations.
• Most people were small-scale subsistence farmers and used polyculture. (It protects the
soil from erosion and can maintain soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilizers and
natural fixation.)
• When chemical pesticides are used in modern agriculture, many of the predators are
killed, and much of the natural pest control is lost.
• Now machines are used, farm sizes increased, fewer farmers, increased government
subsidy, and monoculture is practiced.
• The problem today is that modern agricultural ecosystems have lost their coadaptation
with the natural ecosystems that surround them.
• Return to organic farming.
ECOSYSTEM
SERVICES
• Ecosystem provides services to
sustain our lives:
• There are four types of services:
 Provisioning (seafood)
 Regulating (sequestering
Carbon)
 Supporting (nutrient cycling)
 Cultural (tourism)
MATERIAL CYCLING AND ENERGY FLOW

The ability of ecosystems to provide these services derives from material cycling and energy flow
resulting from production and consumption.

Production: biological production using photosynthesis

Consumption: Animals and microorganisms eat plants, and animals.

Microorganisms and animals use the carbon chains in their food as their own growth and their
metabolic activities.

The movement of materials/minerals/nutrients in an ecosystem is material cycling. (hydrogen,

oxygen, carbon, etc.)
 Energy Flow:
1. Radiation (sunlight, 2. Chemical (such as
Energy has six basic
radio waves, X-rays, batteries, carbon
forms:
infrared radiation). chains).

4. Electrical
3. Mechanical 5. Nuclear (energy
(movement of
(movement). inside atoms).
electrons).

6. Heat (movement of
atoms and molecules).
Laws of Thermodynamics:

First Law: It states that energy can never be

created or destroyed, but it can be
transformed from one form into another.
The second law: of thermodynamics states
that whenever energy is
converted from one form to another, some
of the energy becomes
Low-level heat (which can no longer is
used).
The carbon chains that are left (ie,
photosynthesis minus plant respiration) are
the carbon chains that plants have for
growth.
Ecosystem services resulting from Material cycling and Energy
flow:

Supply of renewable resources. (food and clothing)

Absorption of pollution and wastes (consumption and decomposition of organic wastes by bacteria,
removal of mineral nutrients from water by aquatic plants, dilution of toxic materials by rivers,
oceans, and the atmosphere).

Ecosystem services decline if they are used so intensively that the ecosystem’s ability to provide
services is damaged.

> Salinization, after-effects of the Green Revolution. Due to chemical decomposers being replaced by
other bacteria which don’t purify water.
Fallacy:

ECONOMIC SUPPLY AND DEMAND PROTECT NATURAL RESOURCES

FROM OVEREXPLOITATION

Too many fish are caught, fish become scarce, the price of fish
increases, there is less demand for fish, and fewer fish are caught, and
the fish population increases which is real but not true all the time.
PERCEPTIONS OF NATURE

People and societies use their

worldview to interpret information
and formulate actions.

Different cultures – and different

people in the same culture – have
different perceptions of how
ecosystems function and how they
respond to human actions.

• Perception
> Flowchart • Decision Making
• Action
Perceptions of Nature:

Nature is Fragile (if people

Everything is Connected Nature is benign/perverse change the ecosystem
(events are connected to (provide services, from their natural
human actions) overexploitation) condition, departure from
normal condition)

Nature is Capricious
Nature is durable (use of
(unpredictable, farmers
appropriate technology
one year rain one year
benefitted from nature)
draught)
Religions

• Animism (presence of spirits)

• Eastern Religion (Hinduism, Buddhism,
and Taoism)
• Western Religion (Judaism)
Thank You