Climate Change Factoid – Ecosystems (#4 of a series)

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Author: Rich Albertson

Author: Rich Albertson

The dictionary defines an ecosystem as: A community of organisms together with their environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships. Not a bad definition, but it doesn't provide much insight into how ecosystems actually work, especially sustainable ecosystems. Ecosystems work largely because relationships form around the methods nature employs to manage waste.

There's obviously no trash collection in nature but, still, waste is not allowed to accumulate. All creatures give off waste, it is the residue of what they consume that was unusable to them. In modern human society the given off part, the waste, is considered useless. In the natural world, all waste must serve as a resource to other living things.

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Sustainable ecosystems form amongst creatures that can use all of each others waste as nutrient. If there is too much, or too little, of a given waste the member groups try to adjust their populations or activities to accommodate the differences. As this adjustment continues, it can be a time of considerable instability, until the members are able to equalize input and output or, if they cannot, the attempt at establishing the ecosystem fails and everyone moves on to try again elsewhere. When just the right membership candidates have been brought together, the instability gradually subsides until equilibrium is achieved. The system is now sustainable, a status that flows from achieving equilibrium, which will continue indefinitely until something changes, perhaps an invasive species or a natural event, at which point instability returns and the struggle to adjust begins anew.

Impact of this factoid on Climate Change: The atmosphere is an ecosystem. Prior to the arrival of modern humans this ecosystem, over millions of years had achieved a state of equilibrium. Now, CO2 (a greenhouse gas) contained in that stabilized system has increased unexpectedly by 40%. As described above, the invasion of something new (in this case, an increase of something already there), destabilized the atmosphere and as in all systems subjected to the stress associated with destabilization, it reacts by increasing the extremes of its behavior.

Share:    />Weather is one way the atmosphere manifests itself. The instability resulting from increased heat due to excessive CO2 has the effect of increasing the extremes of weather. Heat is to wind as gasoline is to fire. Yes, climate change is about the temperature increasing but, it is more about wind and precipitation patterns increasing their intensity. Those increases can be either positive or negative. Rainfall events will involve more severe downpours but on the flip side, droughts will become more long-lasting and involve larger areas of land mass. As temperatures increase, more water on the planet's surface evaporates, rising into the atmosphere to later return as heavier precipitation, very often somewhere unaccustomed to that much rainfall. Hurricanes and tornadoes can increase to extreme levels but unusual decreases in the number of these events is also extreme behavior. (Peer reviewed research, supporting the claims made in this factoid, can be found at the website) About the Author:

Rich Albertson is a retired lawyer, author, builder, building designer, carpenter and long time amateur naturalist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Albertson's most recent book (2009), The Sky is the Limit A Brief and Easy Explanation of Climate Change for Present and Future Voters (134pp), is an explanation of the science, economics, politics and a discussion of the future of climate change written for people of average experience. Climate Change Factoids are drawn from the book. His first book (1978), The Bio-Conversion of Waste to Resource (4 Vols, 2624pp), was a treatise on methods for the sustainable management of solid and liquid waste in urban society. More about the Sky is the Limit book can be found at http://www.thecircleworks.org

As a Naturalist, Albertson's primary interest is to understand and then explain the conflicts that result from modern human practices that interfere with the operation of the natural world on a planetary scale.

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