1. Lecture 1: Introduction, Ecology, Ecosystems and Engineering ?
BIO410- Ecology and Environmental Engineering
FALL 2016
By Jasmin Sutkovic
17th Oct.2016
Lecture 1: Introduction, Ecology, Ecosystems and Engineering ?

2. Outline Definition of Ecological Engineering and its goals
Definition of ecosystem
Relationship to ecology
Relationship to engineering
Principles of ecological engineering
Energy Signature

3. Literature download links:
Book 1:
Book 2:

4. Ecology
Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment.
It is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology, geography, and Earth sciences

5. What is Environmental engineering ?
Ecological engineering combines the disciplines of ecology and engineering in order to solve environmental problems.
We use current ecosystems to produce even better new hybrid systems or to solve problems in the existing ecosystems.
It should be cost effective way!!

6. Ecosystem Made of Biotic and Abiotic factors!
Living and Nonliving factors in an Environment together!
Abiotic and Biotic components are found at a particular location that function together as a whole through primary production, community respiration, and biogeochemical cycling.

8. Ecosystem functions Functions within ecosystems include:
energy capture and transformation,
mineral retention and cycling, and
rate regulation and control.
An ecosystem is broadly of two types - terrestrial and aquatic depending on the place where it is present

9. Ecosystem: example

12. RELATIONSHIP TO ECOLOGY
Because ecological engineering uses ecosystems to solve problems, it draws directly
on the science of ecology. This is consistent with other engineering fields which also are based on particular scientific disciplines or topics (Table 1.2).
The principles and theories of ecology are fundamental for understanding natural ecosystems and, therefore, also for the design, construction, and operation of new ecosystems for human purposes.

13. In this model energy from the sun interacts with nutrients for the production (P) of biomass of the system’s community of species populations. Respiration (R) of the community of species releases nutrients back to abiotic
storage, where they are available for uptake again. Thus, energy from sunlight is transformed and dissipated into heat while nutrients cycle internally between compartments. Control is represented by the external energy sources and by the coefficients associated with the pathways. Rates of production and respiration are used as measures of ecosystem performance, and they are regulated by external abiotic conditions such as temperature and precipitation and by the actions of keystone species populations within the system, which are not shown in this highly aggregated
model.

14. Antagonistic attitudes
The science of ecology covers several hierarchical levels: individual organisms, species populations, communities, ecosystems, landscapes, and even the global scale.
For example, some population ecologists do not even believe ecosystems exist!
Ecological engineers need more than just information on energy flow and nutrient cycles.
Knowledge from all hierarchical levels of nature is required, and a flexible concept of the ecosystem is advocated for the full understanding of ecology and environmental engineering

15. RELATIONSHIP TO ENGINEERING
Not fully developed!
Originators of the field have been primarily ecologists rather than engineers.
Ecological engineering strives to traditional engineering method
Engineering method are sometimes relatively undefined, compared to scientific method

16. Science and Engineering relationship
Scientists primarily produce knowledge. Engineers primarily produce
things.” (Kemper, 1982)
“Science strives to understand how things work; engineering strives to make things work.” (Drexler, 1992)
“The scientist describes what is; the engineer creates what never was.” (T. von Karrsan, seen in Jackson, 2001

17. Engineering method
The critical work of engineering is to design, build, and operate useful things.
Although different people are usually involved with each phase of this sequence, there is a constant feedback to the design activity (Figure 1.4A- Book1).

20. Environmental engineering
Developed from sanitary engineering in 1991,which dealt with the problem of treatment of domestic sewage and has traditionally been associated with civil engineering.
The field has broadened from its initial start and now deals with all aspects of environment

21. Ecological VS Environmental engineering
Ecological engineering is related to environmental engineering in sharing a concern for the environment but differs from the latter fundamentally in emphasis.
Ecology eng. uses ecological complexity and living ecosystems with technology to solve environmental problems
Environmental engineering relies on new chemical, mechanical, or material technologies in problem solving.

22. DESIGN OF NEW ECOSYSTEMS
Ecological engineers design, build, and operate new ecosystems for human purposes.
The new systems of ecological engineering are the product of the creative imagination of the human designers, as is true of any engineering field, but in this case the self-organization properties of living systems also make a contribution.

23. New man made Ecosystems
Thus, ecologically engineered systems are the product of input from the human designer and from the system being designed, through the feedback of natural selection.
This quality of the design makes ecological engineering a unique kind of engineering and an intellectually exciting new kind of applied ecology.

24. Man made ecosystems agriculture based systems like a garden, orchards;
products of land development like a lake, canals, park;
products of observation and lively requirements like an aquarium, a building, and a city.

25. Environmental problem solving is a goal of ecological engineering, but only a subset of the environmental problems that face humanity can be dealt with by constructed ecosystem designs.
Many practical applications of ecological engineering exist, though often with different names (Table 1.6).

26. An ecological engineering design relies on a network of species to perform a given function, such as wastewater treatment or erosion control.
The function is usually a consequence of normal growth and behavior of the species. Therefore, finding the best mix of species for the design of a constructed ecosystem is a challenge.
The ecological engineer must understand diversity to meet this challenge.

28. Diversity
Diversity is one of the most important concepts in the discipline of ecology
Biodiversity is a property of nature that has been conceptually revised recently and is the main focus of conservation efforts.
All species have their specific roles and benefits

30. For example
The search for plant species that accumulate metals for phytoremediation is one example and others can be imagined.
Design of new ecosystems requires the creation of networks of energy flow (food chains and webs) and biogeochemical cycling (uptake, storage, and release of nutrients, minerals, pollutants) that are developed through time in successional changes of species populations.

32. Energy signature
The energy signature of an ecosystem is the set of energy sources that affects it.
Another term used for this concept is forcing functions: those outside causal forces that influence system behavior and performance.
Autochthonous (sunlight-driven primary production from within the system)
Allochthonous (inputs from outside the system)
Auxiliary energies (influences on ecosystems from sources other than sunlight and organic matter)

33. Different types of energy cayuse different ecosystems to exist
Thus, each energy signature causes a unique kind of system to develop.
The wide variety of ecosystems scattered across the biosphere reflect the many kinds of energy sources that exist.

35. Self Organization
It applies to the process by which species composition, relative abundance distributions, and network connections develop over time.
This is commonly known as succession within ecology, but those scientists with a general systems perspective recognize it as an example of the larger phenomenon of self-organization.
The mechanism of self-organization within ecosystems is a form of natural selection of those species that reach a site through dispersal.

36. Self organization VS Second law of Thermodynamics
Maxwell’s demon was the central actor of an imaginary experiment devised by J. Clerk Maxwell in the early days of the
development of the field of thermodynamics (Harman, 1998; Klein, 1970). The tiny demon could sense the energy level of gas molecules around him in a closed chamber and operate a door between two partitions. He allowed fast-moving gas molecules to pass through the door and accumulate on one side of the chamber while keeping slow-moving molecules on the other side by closing the door whenever they came nearby. In this way he created order (the final gradient in fast and slow molecules) from disorder (the initial even distribution of fast and slow molecules) and cheated the second law of thermodynamics.

37. Preadaptation
Adaptation :knowing which species are more adequate for an ecosystem (usually species who match with shape and behavior to the system)
Adaptation by species occurs through Darwinian evolution along environmental gradients
In contrast to the concept of adaptation, preadaptation is a relatively minor concept of evolutionary biology
Preadaptations are “preexisting features that make organisms suitable for new situations”

38. Example
Vogel (1998) has noted “preadaptation may be so common in human technology that no one pays it much attention.”
As an example, he notes that waterwheels in mills used to extract power from streams were preadapted for use as paddle wheels in the first generation of steamboats.

39. Principle of Ecological ENGINEERING

40. Useful Links: