Collapse Flashcards
It is often said that life cannot exist without death. In the context of this class, explain this statement
Because material cycles are closed, only through death are materials essential for life released back into the environment to be broken down and used for new life
What are the four stages of Panarchy
Growth
Conservation
Release
Reorganization
What is Self Organized Criticality and how might it be linked to the theory of punctuated equilibrium
SOC is the process whereby a system self organizes during development, over the course of development the systems internal regulation has long periods of modest activity and infrequent but high magnitude avalanches. SOC says that the same disturbance can yield dramatically different results depending on the state of development of a system. If you were to graph the rate of change over time it would result in a punctuated equilibrium
Panarchys reorganization stage is more commonly known by another name, what is it and explain the role of reorganization in the context of panarchy
Adaptation
After entrained materials are released back into the environment they are free to be taken up by new genotypes or species whose successful claim on these materials reflects their competitive viability over previous holders of the material
What is creative inefficiency and why is it important to system viability
The only way an ecological system can maintain consistent functionality in a changing environment is to maintain adaptive potential. This is done by max potential energetic pathways through the system. At some point in future, previously less efficient pathways may become more so, offering potential and through put through those pathways will increase allowing development to continue. Can only happen with diversity so disturbances
Why is efficiency both a blessing and a curse
The more efficient a system is the more successful it becomes
This causes the system to prune out the less competitive nodes from the network. Therefore the system has max eff but max fragility and a disturbance can now have catastrophic effects
What is the link between overhead diversity and system collapse
As a system develops, less competitive species are lost for the more competitive and increased biomass. This causes the increase in energy throughout and overhead. This loss increases the brittleness of the overall system and thus the system becomes increasingly susceptible to collapse
PLA and PMA
PLA: universe seeks max entropy, physical systems seek equilibrium
PMA: minimize entropy, biological organisms seek be as far from equilibrium
How can we understand complex adaptive systems
Only through a hierarchical perspective
Scale
The temporal period (time) and spatial extent (space) of cycles
The characteristic features of a system at one scale are strongly influenced by the characters at the smaller scale
Ecosystem function
Is the result of trade off or compromises on efficiency
Function: the balance between most and least action
Underdeveloped: displaced competition
Overdeveloped: eliminate comp and cause brittle
Corollary
Management strategies that focus on min or max a particular component of a system will always fail. Dynamic balance should be objective
Key observations of adaption
Complexity increases with time
While lineages share the same fate as individuals (all die)
Diversity
Is generated as a product of adaptation and evolution
Persistence depends on continued capacity to acquire and retain sufficient energy resources for pop/ species to remain viable
Two major take homes from self organized criticality
The max eff
Mag of disturbance does not change but mag of response ranges widely and follows clear pattern
