Ecological network analysis of China's societal metabolism

Uncontrolled socioeconomic development has strong negative effects on the ecological environment, including pollution and the depletion and waste of natural resources. These serious consequences result from the high flows of materials and energy through a socioeconomic system produced by exchanges between the system and its surroundings, causing the disturbance of metabolic processes. In this paper, we developed an ecological network model for a societal system, and used China in 2006 as a case study to illustrate application of the model. We analyzed China's basic metabolic processes and used ecological network analysis to study the network relationships within the system. Basic components comprised the internal environment, five sectors (agriculture, exploitation, manufacturing, domestic, and recycling), and the external environment. We defined 21 pairs of ecological relationships in China's societal metabolic system (excluding self-mutualism within a component). Using utility and throughflow analysis, we found that exploitation, mutualism, and competition relationships accounted for 76.2, 14.3, and 9.5% of the total relationships, respectively. In our trophic level analysis, the components were divided into producers, consumers, and decomposers according to their positions in the system. Our analyses revealed ways to optimize the system's structure and adjust its functions, thereby promoting healthier socioeconomic development, and suggested ways to apply ecological network analysis in future socioeconomic research.