Title: Earth Systems Science (ESS) and Systems Ecology
Abstract: Earth systems science (ESS) is a science that is strongly linked to biogeochemistry, through its study of the earth systems (lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere) through which the chemical elements and compounds studied by biogeochemistry flow. The two disciplines developed largely separately, but this chapter explores common ground, in terms of origins, developments, and future possibilities. A basic definition of ESS is that it is the application of systems science to the earth’s surface. Systems science and its subsets, systems ecology and earth systems science, provide methodologies that can document, describe, analyze, and understand spatial and networked ecological relations, within the larger, complex disciplines of the environmental sciences. ESS is a recent development, within physical geography and the earth and environmental sciences, with the objective of studying the integrated relations, physical, energy, and chemical, to link the contributions of the increasingly polarized and segmented earth and environmental sciences. This science is concerned with, but not limited to, the relations between the global to local contexts of the biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. The developmental trend of ESS is particularly relevant to the field of biogeochemistry, which itself is also a multidisciplinary field seeking to override the generally artificial disciplinary boundaries between biological, chemical, and physical sciences to derive answers for complex environmental questions. This chapter examines the basics of ESS and then looks at the approach and methodologies of systems ecology and the links to biogeochemistry, using recent literature sources on the definition, application, and status of ESS and related sciences. It is argued that ESS must battle on two fronts: the question for broader knowledge to solve the increasingly complex, multidisciplinary environmental issues, and the requirement for deep specialization to understand the issues in the first place, some at microscopic level. Institutional barriers also creep in, as the topics of ESS may be scattered across departments, sometimes different from those of biogeochemistry. The linking between ESS and biogeochemistry must also be measured against the changes in the environmental focus of the basic sciences (chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology) and the fortunes of the environmentally applied progeny of these disciplines (geochemistry, environmental chemistry, biochemical and chemical engineering, biochemistry, geophysics, environmental and atmospheric physics, civil, geological, and environmental engineering, oceanography, statistics, etc.). The understanding of these complex issues contributes to the development of biogeochemical studies.
Publication Year: 2023
Publication Date: 2023-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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