Tham khảo tài liệu 'thermodynamics systems in equilibrium and non equilibrium part 7', kỹ thuật - công nghệ, cơ khí - chế tạo máy phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | 140 Thermodynamics - Systems in Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium 1928 maintain their significance as basic concepts in studying vegetation but are in need to be integrated in new scientific theories Naveh 1984 1990 Pignatti 1994 Pignatti Box Fujiwara 2002 Ingegnoli 1997 2002 Ingegnoli Giglio 2005 Ingegnoli Pignatti 2007 . We will see that following scientific paradigms like thermodynamics it is possible to relate the landscape equilibrium to the concept of metastability that is the state of a system oscillating around a central position steady or stationary state but susceptible to being diverted to another equilibrium state. Therefore different types of landscapes or their parts may be correlated with diverse levels of metastability. This statement has a very important dynamic significance because it allows knowledge of the transformation modalities of a landscape and consequently as we will see further allows the diagnosis of its healthy state. Trying to evaluate the metastability of a landscape one has to refer to the concept of biodiversity . landscape diversity and to the concept of latent capacity of homeostasis of an ecocoenotope or tessera . Referring to a vegetation ecocoenotope it has been possible to define a magnitude named biological territorial capacity or BTC Ingegnoli 1991 2002 Ingegnoli and Giglio 1999 2005 Ingegnoli and Pignatti 2007 which represents the flux of energy that an ecocoenotope must dissipate to maintain its proper level of order and metastability. Therefore the linkage of vegetation science with landscape ecology and with thermodynamics becomes more effective. An example of application of the discipline on the territory of Mori Trento Italy is shown at the end of this chapter. 2. Main characters of biological systems Between life and its environment we can discover strict relationships exchange of matter and information and a priori knowledge. Energy can be transformed in matter or information depending on different codifications of
