Notes on Ecology for Environmental Ethics, Phil.

221

Ecology is the study of the relationships among organisms and their environment.

Every organism exists in, contributes to, and is sustained by an environment

(which includes other organisms). No living thing exists in a vacuum � not even
humans, though this idea is somewhat contrary to the religious and philosophical
traditions of Western civilization.

Physics � the paradigmatic science � presents an atomistic picture of the world.

Ecology presents a holistic picture.

Atomism
biological world composed of independent parts

Holism
biological world composed of interdependent parts, defined by their relations with
one another and whole system

e.g. Humans are not in the environment like an old car tire might be in a stream
(an example from Don Marietta). We can understand all we need to know about the
car tire without knowing that it just happens to be lying in a stream. But we
can�t do this with humans, or any other living thing. We are the result of our
evolutionary past, it made us what we are by millennia of history and
interrelationships with all other organisms and aspects of the natural
environment.

We forget this in our increasingly artificial and technological societies. "The

Supermarket Effect" � many people don�t know (or care) where food really comes
from or how it is made, on what it relies. Cp. The Jetsons or Futurama. Where is
the environment in these scenarios? Where has it gone?

Understanding our Place in the Natural Ecological System

We exist on a planet orbiting a star, our sun, from which we derive nearly all of
the energy which drives all biological and climate systems on earth (we get some
heat energy from the internal core of our planet).

The sun�s energy is used by plants (the primary producers) to produce oxygen
(which animals breathe), sugars (for energy), and nitrogen (for protein to build
cells etc.). All these plant products are taken up by animals, which are called
consumers.

The Carbon Cycle � photosynthesis in plants

(Solar energy) + CO2 + H2O �> O2 + Sugar (C6H12O6)

Respiration -- (burning of sugars by animals)

sugar + O2 �> H2O + CO2 + heat

** Nature Recycles Everything**

First Law of Thermodynamics: Neither energy nor matter (E=mc2) is either created
or destroyed, but changed from one form to another.

E.g. solar heat energy �> chemical energy �> heat Kinetic <�> Potential

Nitrogen cycle

Bacteria and fungi in soil �fix� nitrogen (N) on plant roots, plants turn N into
proteins, which are eaten by animals to build cells etc. � animal waste is
excreted back into soil, decomposed by bacteria, insects and fungi into simpler
chemical molecules to be reused by plants.

First Law of Thermodynamics ==> Everything has to go somewhere � there is no

�away� ==>

the Great Law of Ecology: everything is connected to everything else (Holism).

Ecosystems are massively complex interdependent systems of energy and matter

transfers

Law of Ecological Holism ==> The Law of Unintended Consequences - "you can never
do just one thing"

E.g. Burning of fossil fuels �> acid rain �> acidic soils �> dissolution of
calcium in soil �> lower levels of calcium for snail shells �> lower calcium
levels in bird diets �> thinner egg shells �> higher chick mortality �> decreased
bird populations (�> higher insect populations �> damage to crops �> need for more
energy intensive agriculture �> more burning of fossil fuels �> etc.)

Pyramid of Trophic Levels

[Figure missing, cf. class notes]

90% of available energy lost in each step up food chain/trophic level �>
vegetarian diet much more energy & cost efficient than meat diet

Harvard entomologist E.O. Wilson on importance of invertebrates in contrast to

humans (Botzler & Armstrong, 33):

"The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don�t need us. If human beings
were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change. Gaia, the
totality of life on earth, would set about healing itself and return to the rich
environmental states of a few thousand years ago. But if invertebrates were to
disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months. Most
of the fishes, amphibians, birds, and mammals would crash to extinction about the
same time. Next would go the bulk of the flowering plants and with them the
physical structure of the majority of the forests and other terrestrial habitats
of the world. The earth would rot. As dead vegetation piled up and dried out,
narrowing and closing the channels of the nutrient cycles, other complex forms of
vegetation would die off, and with them the last remnants of the vertebrates. The
remaining fungi, after enjoying a population explosion of stupendous proportions,
would also perish. Within a few decades the world would return to the state of a
billion years ago, composed primarily of bacteria, algae, and a few other very
simple multicellular plants."

Importance of biodiversity: need for functional redundancy in case one �keystone�

species performing an essential task is eradicated, so that whole system does not
come crashing down