Albuquerque's Environmental Story

Educating For a Sustainable Community

Introduction

Systems and Ecosystems

Systems

• next to other systems
• within other systems
• overlapping other systems
• superimposed on other systems
• interacting with other systems,

and

• natural systems interfacing with other natural systems
• natural systems interfacing with human systems
• Human systems interfacing with other human systems

Each of these systems came from someplace and is headed someplace. Each experiences succession, and is part of a dynamic continuum containing living things or biotic communities. These communities are subject to limiting factors imposed by the physical environment. All of the basic principles of ecology apply to each of these systems.

Basic knowledge of the interrelationships that exist in any system, natural or man made, can be a valuable aid in learning how to make wise use of the natural environment with which the city is endowed. The systems and the principles involved are the same whether the community studied consists of plants and animals living on a mesa, in the mountains, along the banks of the river, or on a school lawn. They apply to the human community which makes up our city, as well as the natural areas around us.

A system consists of organized interrelationships of matter and energy. Change in one part of a system's organization affects change in all other parts of the system. Some systems in nature are:

• carbon dioxide - oxygen cycle
• nitrogen cycle
• phosphorous cycle
• photosynthesis
• water cycle
• soil formation
• decomposition

Some systems in human societies are:

• agriculture
• manufacturing
• transportation
• waste disposal

These human systems are, in turn, regulated by "control systems" such as political institutions, economic practices, recreational pursuits, aesthetic and religious values, and educational objectives.

The common denominators for all systems might be described as follows:

• Every systems has inputs and outputs and energy transfers. Systems involve transfer of energy in the collection, storage, distribution, and conversion of raw materials.
• Changes in quality, direction, or rate of flow in any part of the system affect the whole system.
• Usable materials go into a system, and waste materials come out of it.
• Everything is interrelated. (Arbitrary boundaries such as the CO2-O2 cycle, food chains, and the nitrogen cycle are assigned for ease in observing and studying a system.)

The extent to which the public is made aware of basic principles of an ecosystem, that is, the community and its interrelationship with its environment, and is responsive to their implications will determine whether the Albuquerque of the future can retain the lifestyle and the quality of life considered so desirable by most of us who live here.

(Up to Introduction, Back to People, Cities, and the Environment, On to What Lies Ahead?)

Copyright © 2008, Friends of Albuquerque's Environmental Story