One of the most interesting aspects of life is ‘ecosystem’. Ecosystems are among the most indispensable yet most under-rated phenomena in our universe. An ecosystem is a community of organisms (ecological community), it’s environment (biosphere) and the interactions and intra-actions that sustain the organisms’ existence and interrelationships within that environment (biomes) – it is the interaction of biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) components of an environment through a cyclic flow of energy and nutrients (water, forces, mass, minerals, chemical elements, molecular compounds, weather, climate, temperature, atmosphere, …) propelled by photosynthetic, mechanical and electromagnetic processes in nature. Ecosystems can be natural or man-made (anthropogenic), or both – as in a city.
So, in a nutshell, living organisms feed and die and their remains and wastes decompose and are reinserted into the environment – into the soil (pedosphere) and the atmosphere as resources to be reabsorbed by same living organisms through natural or man-made processes and ecological cycles: photosynthesis in plants (which relies on carbon dioxide, a product of respiration), respiration in organisms (which relies on oxygen, a product of photosynthesis), decomposition, food cycle, water cycle, nutrient cycle, energy exchange, etc.. But ecosystems are much richer than a nutshell (while still being inclusive of it). Let’s explore further. Let’s use three key phrases – ‘3 types of biotic members’, ‘the three major agents of energy’ and ‘the 3 P’s’ – to explore and broaden our understanding of ecosystems.
There are 3 types of biotic members in the ecosystem: producers, consumers and decomposers. Energy is taken into the ecosystem by ‘green’ plants (the producers) through the process of photosynthesis (the greenness we see of plant leaves are an outcome of photosynthetic processes: chlorophyll, a light-absorbing pigment of leaf cells, absorbs all other wavelengths, but reflects the green). All other members that depend directly or indirectly on the producers are called ‘consumers’ – microbes to parasites to carnivores. Mostly however, microorganisms are classified under the third type, decomposers – they break down in stages, dead and decaying biological make-ups into more basic chemical compositions, and in the process, produce mineral nutrients (that reenter the ecosystem as compost, fertilizer and soil amendment to be absorbed by plant roots), and release gases including ammonia, methane and sulphides (the source of the pungent odor you perceive around decomposing tissues of a dead body or biotic remains). In addition, some bacteria (a category of microorganisms) have been shown to be allies – they provide benefits to humans and animals, for example, once in the body, they help strengthen the functions of anatomical systems like the immune and digestive systems. This brings us to the ecological ‘food chain’ (or food web) – a critical component of the ecosystem: herbivores dependent on the green plants for direct source of energy – they feed on green plants that have absorbed nutrients from the soil through their roots (or directly from the water as in the case of marine ecosystems), and have converted energy they absolved from light through photosynthesis into nutrients and other forms of energy. Carnivorous, omnivorous, parasites, microbes form secondary and tertiary levels of the food chain, with bacteria and fungi (decomposers) – assisted in many cases by scavengers (carcass feeding insects and animals: insects, mites, flesh-flees, vultures, coyotes, foxes, rats) – returning the organic and inorganic components (mineral nutrients – carbon, nitrogen, water, sulfur, phosphorus, oxygen…) back into the ecosystem to be re-absorbed by the producers and consumers via the processes photosynthesis, solar energy flow (photo and thermal [light and heat] effects), energy exchange (absorption, transfer, conversion as energy moves from surrounding to surrounding) and the nutrient cycle (exchange of mineral nutrients across the different spheres [biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere], cumulating in the generation and augmentation of biomass (the measurable [qualifiable/quantifiable] mass of energy-extractable materials from biotic members) in the ecosystem).
Light, water and air are the three major agents of energy in the ecosystem. They are the prime abiotic members, and the resources for energy absorption, distribution and conservation connecting all ecosystems, inhabiting all chemical reactions, initiating and sustaining interactions within and between ecosystems, and throughout the Four Spheres of the Earth (geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere). Light (sunlight) sets the ball rolling via the process of photosynthesis [Photosynthesis: carbon dioxide + water stored by the plant {in the presence of sunlight} produces a carbon-hydrogen-oxygen compound (glucose) + oxygen]. Water sustains and regulates energy exchange processes through the ‘hydrologic cycle’ (movement of water throughout the biosphere – from river and stream flows to evaporation to formation of clouds to precipitation in form of rain and snow, to absorption by roots of plants to consumption by organisms, etc.). Air carries particulates – molecules; microorganisms; solid, liquid, gaseous compounds; microscopic elements, etc. – from one geographical location to another – bringing about or facilitating natural effects such as pollination, respiration, convection current, heat exchange, diffusion, atmospheric pressure, sounds and oceanic waves, climatic conditions, etc.
An organism’s survival is greatly dependent on the organism remaining a functioning participator in an ecosystem, because the relationship of an organism with the three major agents of energy in the ecosystem is a critical factor in the organism’s ‘living’:
- Radiation from sunlight complemented by fluid mechanics (liquid and gas flows) helps produce heat and temperature difference; temperature is critical to metabolism in organisms – the temperature range 20 to 40 degrees Celsius, allows for optimal organisms’ metabolism
- An organism needs to maintain a certain percentage of water within itself (60 to 90% of the body’s content) to facilitate survival (including organisms existing at the cellular level).
- Plants and animals depend on each other for their essential intake-generation-exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide for survival (photosynthesis and respiration [Respiration: involves the use of oxygen {and chemical reactions on glucose (oxidation of glucose)} in the organism that produces carbon dioxide that then gets released from the organism’s body]).
When we consider these co-dependencies – of biotic members on biotic and abiotic resources and the agents of energy, and vice versa – at the larger earth-wide scale for the functioning and thriving of ecosystems, we see that this relationship, even though beneficial and seemingly mutual, can be incredibly hostile to the ease of survival of species, causing organisms to develop selective physiological characteristics and behavioral adaptations: birds migrate; some animal hibernate; some organisms change color to adapt to their environment; some emit repellant characteristics to ward off predators or parasites, or scents to attract; some others evolve to gain physiological advantages with ecological benefits like in the case of intelligence in humans. In this way, functionalities within the network of ecosystems throughout the earth are closely linked to evolution.
A good example is the evolution of species some 4 billion years ego, from anaerobic to aerobic, and from single-celled to multicellular life forms. In the early formation of the earth’s atmosphere, oxygen released by plants and anaerobic organisms some 3 billion years before, accumulated and were absorbed and outgassed into and out of the pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere over a prolonged period. This saturation of free oxygen in the early ecosystems of the earth then forced photosynthetic archaea and bacteria (single-celled organisms that evolved in the presence of carbon and water through photosynthetic respiration) to further evolve into aerobic organisms that undergo oxygenated (cellular) respiration – facilitating the generation and utilization of energy for cellular growth and augmentation. This enabled single-celled life forms to evolve into multicellular organisms, and ultimately, complex multicellular plants and animals. Hence the succeeding photosynthesis-respiration reciprocity between plants and animals for some 2 billion years.
From an expansive viewpoint, ‘ecosystem’ is indispensable to the evolutionary journey of the Universe and of existence and life. The experience, exercise and expression of the natural laws governing chemical reactions (chemistry) evolved from the same of physical interactions (physics); i.e. from the experience, exercise and expression of the natural laws governing physics. Same of natural life forms (biology) evolved from chemistry. Natural environmental bodies and states of matter (hydrology & geology) and biology evolved in parallel and intersectionally from the interactivity of physics and chemistry, with hydrology/geology contributing to the inception of biology, and biology in turn pouring back into hydrology/geology. Language evolved from the biology, physics and chemistry of species (physiology) making use of organismic evolution of genes from instinctual to intellectual to colonial (a.k.a. memory – individualistic to collective) under hydrological and geological influences (psychology) along with the demands of communal engagements (sociology). Philosophy is the further evolution of language towards subverting latent and patent environmental and universal constraints, and deciphering and transcending nature (expansion in intellectual capacity) in the direction and pursuit of survival, subsistence and succession – through the discovery, conglomeration and structural augmentation of the basic elements of intelligence, love and Understanding (schools, and constructs – a.k.a. belief, culture, customs and traditions). And the twin-siblings, the sciences and arts – that is, all of the aforementioned, and consequent/subsequent organized branches of knowledge and understanding – evolved from philosophy. The interactions among all these branches of governing laws of the Universe and of existence and life is ecosystems. Under this expansive viewpoint, the three major agents of energy can be expanded as well: light can be expanded out to electromagnetic waves and the electromagnetic spectrum; water expanded out to Space; and air to all forms of energy and energy interactions & intra-actions.
Ecosystems can be regarded more succinctly as the natural interactive relationship of the 3 P’s – ‘Processes’, ‘Properties’ and ‘Particles’ – by means of exploitation into the interior and exterior characteristics and configurations of the environment hosting them. Technical definition of ecosystem constricts it to the Earth and a slot between biomes and ecological communities, but as already mentioned, and owing to the functional capacities of the 3 P’s, ecosystem can, and needs to be regarded to span from microbial, microscopic and subatomic to lightyears and astronomic, interfacing all spheres of the earth and outer space. Why? Because ecosystems are the ultimate repository of ‘effects’ (butterfly effect, ripple effect, cascade effect, cause and effect, greenhouse effect, etc.) – all effects ever categorized by the human race (both natural (physical) and social) can be narrated as a sub-function or subset of ecosystems (I’ll break it down with a scenario in a bit).
In expatiating on the components of the 3 P’s, we will see that an ecosystem can have an extremely large set and subsets of participators (members) as well as an immense variation in interactivity of components of the 3 P’s – each and all aspects and members of the ecosystem being definitively categorizable under the 3 P’s:
Processes:
‘Processes’ simply refer to the laws of nature: biological processes, chemical reactions, thermal equilibrium, the physics of motion and statics, energy exchange, nutrient cycle, etc.
Particle:
‘Particles’ is the matter – body or mass – that constitutes the participatory component and considered either the recipient of the benefits of the functions of the ecosystem (the organism), or the agent or host of the other 2 P’s, ‘Processes’ and ‘Properties’ (soil, water, air, gas, liquid, light, photon, lava, earth…). ‘Particles’ can be elementary or compounded, microscopic or macroscopic – it ranges from subatomic to astronomic.
Properties:
‘Properties’ is the characteristics of the components of the ecosystem – the characteristics of ‘Particles’ (their composition; their make-up; their configuration; the physical, structural or biological state of their constituents) – that permits, aids or restricts the free flow of ‘Processes’.
So, at any point in the perpetual cycle that is the ecosystem, you can reconstruct the actions of the 3 P’s: the laws of nature acting on or through a body of mass to produce an effect or characteristic that feeds back into nature, and specifically, into the same cycle that generated it (ecosystem).
Now, let’s paint that elaborate scenario promised:
Consider these three: a chemical element we will call ‘el’, a photon we will call ‘pho’ and a microbe we will call ‘mic’. The sun (a massive nuclear fusion of chemical elements) releases a bust of gaseous matter from its atmosphere (solar wind), and in it is ‘el’. ‘el’ makes its way to our atmosphere (travelling with the force and velocity of the solar wind energy towards the Earth), going by the moon’s orbit, and makes its way through the Earth’s magnetic field (the Van Allen radiation belt) and journeys through the layers of Earth’s atmosphere – passed satellites, space stations, research rockets, weather balloons, through the Earth’s ozone layer, and into ‘air’ (the gases of the ecological sphere — of majority nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide that constitute our breathing and photosynthesis). ‘el’ along the way, is affected by atmospheric conditions of temperature and pressure to combine, split and recombine its sub-compositions with those of fellow elements, into ions and cations and states (plasma, gas, liquid, dust) and precipitation (rain, snow – that eventually stream into and connect with all the bodies of water throughout the planet as well as with the atmosphere through evaporation and condensations). Meanwhile, at the very moment of ‘el’s’ entrance into ‘air’, ‘mic’ is with a crew of microorganisms acting on the remains of a wild cat who had died from being infected by another crew of microbes. As ‘mic’ and its crew’s action is producing decompression of the remains, it (the action of decomposition) is also producing nutrients deposited into the soil (which now has been moistened by precipitation processes that had involved reactions with ‘el’), and gasses that get released into the atmosphere – into the air — air where ‘el’ has just entered. Some lightyears after ‘el’s’ departure from the sun’s atmosphere, a stream of photons in a ray of light is radiated from the sun to the earth; in it is ‘pho’ (lightyears, because the rays constituting ‘pho’ will travel at the speed of light – significantly higher speed than the speed of the solar wind conveying ‘el’ and companions). As they journey, ‘pho’ and crew strike different surfaces on earth – their radiation generating heat, pressure and temperature differences, with hot air rising, cool air coming down, heat exchange occurring (that accelerates the decompression process in which ‘mic’ is involved), evaporation and the formation of clouds – which get involved in the precipitation processes with ‘el’ and company. Wavelengths and energy levels of the ray of radiation from the sun (visible light: a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum containing all lights (or electromagnetic waves)) carrying ‘pho’ produce refractions, diffractions, reflections – facilitating optical properties and aiding visual systems in organisms. With the rays landing on a plant leaves on land and marine plant in water, ‘pho’ and companions get to work facilitating photosynthesis – energy conversions by chemical reactions take place in the plants in the presence of the sunlight, and nutrients are absorbed by marine plants in the water or on land by the plants’ roots from the moistened and freshened (as a result of ‘el’ and company’s actions), and nutrient-enriched (by ‘mic’ and company’s activities) soil and water. Pressure and temperature differences produced by ‘pho’ and companions along with the Earth’s rotation produce air accelerations (wind). A gust of the wind comes along and picks up ‘mic’; so now, ‘el’, ‘mic’ and the energy forms produced by ‘pho’ are moving through the atmosphere from one geographical location to another. Energy from ‘pho’ continue to transfer and transduce; ‘mic’ drops off at a location to participate at a decomposition in progress, or possibly to expire, or possibly replicate itself; ‘el’ and its sub-compositions mingle and chemically react with compositions of exhaust fumes from GreenHavest Company and AquaticFoods delivery trucks, carrying green plants to the companies’ animal and aquatic farms respectively – among which are the green plants that underwent photosynthesis with the help of ‘pho’ – they get processed and fed to the herds at the GreenHavest animal farm, and to schools of fish at the AquaticFoods aquatic farm; a few of them (the goats and fish that fed on the green plants that underwent photosynthesis with the help of ‘ pho’) get slaughtered and sold to a restaurant in the city – where they get feasted on by a group of entrepreneurs celebrating the close of a new deal.