Emergy, Transformity, và hệ sinh thái Y tế Trong chương này, các hệ sinh thái được tóm tắt như các hệ thống năng lượng và sức khỏe hệ sinh thái được thảo luận liên quan đến thay đổi cơ cấu, tổ chức, và khả năng chức năng như được giải thích bởi những thay đổi trong emergy, trao quyền, và transformity. Sống và các bộ phận không sống và các quá trình của môi trường như hoạt động cùng nhau thường được gọi là hệ sinh thái. Ví dụ như rừng, đất ngập nước, hồ, thảo nguyên, và các rạn san. | CHAPTER 14 Emergy Transformity and Ecosystem Health . Brown and S. Ulgiati INTRODUCTION In this chapter ecosystems are summarized as energetic systems and ecosystem health is discussed in relation to changes in structure organization and functional capacity as explained by changes in emergy empower and transformity. The living and nonliving parts and processes of the environment as they operate together are commonly called ecosystems. Examples are forests wetlands lakes prairies and coral reefs. Ecosystems circulate materials transform energy support populations join components in network interactions organize hierarchies and spatial centers evolve and replicate information and maintain structure in pulsing oscillations. Energy drives all these processes and energetic principles explain much of what is observed. The living parts of ecosystems are interconnected each receiving energy and materials from the other interacting through feedback mechanisms to self-organize in space time and connectivity. Processes of energy transformation throughout the ecosystem build order cycle materials and sustain Copyright 2005 by Taylor Francis Figure Generic ecosystem diagram showing driving energies production cycling and the hierarchy of ecological components. information degrading energy in the process. The parts are organized in an energy hierarchy as shown in aggregated form in Figure . As energy flows from driving energy sources on the right to higher and higher order ecosystem components it is transformed from sunlight to plant biomass to first-level consumers to second level and so forth. At each transformation second law losses decrease the available energy but the quality of energy remaining is increased. A SYSTEMS VIEW OF ECOSYSTEM HEALTH Conceptually ecosystem health is related to integrity and sustainability. A healthy ecosystem is one that maintains both system structure and function in the presence of stress. Vigor resilience and organization
