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Sustainable systems as organisms?

Mae-Wan Ho1, Robert Ulanowicz

  • 1Biophysics Group, Department of Pharmacy, King's College, London SE1 9NN, UK. m.w.ho@i-sis.org.uk

Bio Systems
|June 30, 2005
PubMed
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Organisms and ecosystems are ideal sustainable systems, maintaining organization far from equilibrium. Analyzing them as organisms offers new diagnostic criteria for sustainability in ecology and economics.

Area of Science:

  • Thermodynamics of organized complexity
  • Ecosystem dynamics
  • Sustainable systems analysis

Background:

  • Organisms maintain organization using metabolic energy, a phenomenon unexplained by classical thermodynamics.
  • A novel thermodynamics of organized complexity, based on nested dynamical structures, explains efficient energy transfer in organisms.
  • This model aligns with the dynamical structure of steady-state ecosystems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore common features between organisms and ecosystems.
  • To analyze sustainable systems in agriculture, ecology, and economics through an organismic lens.
  • To extract indicators of system health and sustainability.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of organismic and ecosystemic organization.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Application of thermodynamic principles to complex systems.
  • Identification of diagnostic criteria for sustainability.

    • Main Results:

    • Viewing sustainable systems as organisms provides fresh insights into sustainability.
    • Diagnostic criteria for system health were identified for ecosystems (e.g., biodiversity, energy efficiency) and economic systems (e.g., resource regeneration, equitable exchange).

    Conclusions:

    • Organisms are ideal sustainable systems due to their ability to maintain organization and avoid equilibrium.
    • The organismic model offers valuable diagnostic criteria for assessing the health and sustainability of ecological and economic systems.