The Balance of nature refers to the theory that ecological systems are usually in a stable equilibrium (homeostasis Homeostasis is the property of a system, either open or closed, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition. Typically used to refer to a living organism, the concept came from that of milieu interieur that was created by Claude Bernard and published in 1865. Multiple dynamic equilibria adjustment and), which is to say that a small change in some particular parameter (the size of a particular population, for example) will be corrected by some negative feedback Negative feedback occurs when the output of a system acts to oppose changes to the input of the system; with the result that the changes are attenuated. If the overall feedback of the system is negative, then the system will tend to be stable that will bring the parameter back to its original "point of balance" with the rest of the system. It may apply where populations depend on each other, for example in predator/prey systems, or relationships between herbivores and their food source. It is also sometimes applied to the relationship between the Earth's ecosystem, the composition of the atmosphere, and the world's climate.
Ecotheology Ecotheology is a form of constructive theology that focuses on the interrelationships of religion and nature, particularly in the light of environmental concerns. Ecotheology generally starts from the premise that a relationship exists between human religious/spiritual worldviews and the degradation of nature. It explores the interaction between and the Gaia hypothesis The Gaia hypothesis is an ecological hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth are closely integrated to form a complex interacting system that maintains the climatic and biogeochemical conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis. Originally proposed by James Lovelock as the earth feedback hypothesis, it suggest that the Earth and its ecology act as co-ordinated system to maintain the balance of nature.
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History of the Theory
The concept is very old; Herodotus Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC). He is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid described the relationship between predator and prey species, and commented on how they were in an essentially static balance, with predators never excessively consuming their prey populations.[1] The "balance of nature" concept once ruled ecological research, as well as once governing the management of, natural resources. This led to a doctrine Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or "a body of teachings" or "instructions", taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism popular among some conservationists Conservationists are proponents or advocates of the ethic of conservation and may be part of the conservation movement that nature was best left to its own devices, and that human Humans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving members of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees the intervention into it was by definition unacceptable.[2]
Counter-arguments
The concept has been criticised in recent times as being a pseudoscientific Pseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status. The term comes from the Greek prefix pseudo- and "science" ( fallacy. It was first put into question when a substantial number of studies showed that predator/prey populations display a continuing state of disturbance and fluctuation rather than constancy and balance. It has been proposed by some scientists that ecological communities of plants and animals are inherently unstable, due to substantial idiosyncratic differences in behavior among communities and individuals in them. An aggressive, dominant wolf The grey wolf or gray wolf , also known as simply wolf, is the largest wild member of the Canidae family. It is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris). Although for example can greatly increase the chances of a pack in securing food, just as the death of a pack leader can lead to the pack's mass starvation. It is reasoned that any apparent equilibrium is illusory because external factors (such as variations in weather patterns, fires, hurricanes or disease) seldom allow ecological communities to stabilise.[2] Dr. George L. Jacobson Jr., a paleoecologist at the University of Maine stated that according to ancient rock sediments; "[regarding natural systems] there is almost no circumstance one can find where something isn't changing the system.. it's never allowed to [stabilise], so we might as well not expect [balance] to exist."[2]
In addition, some populations show chaotic Chaos theory is an area of inquiry in mathematics, physics, and philosophy studying the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term behavior, where the sizes of populations change in a way that may appear random, but is in fact obeying deterministic Determinism is the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. Determinists believe the universe is fully governed by causal laws resulting in only one possible state at any point in time. With numerous historical debates, many varieties and laws based only on the relationship between a population and its food source. An example of this was shown in an eight year study on small Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. The Kattegat continues through creatures such as plankton Plankton consist of any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than their phylogenetic or taxonomic classification. They provide a crucial source of food to more familiar aquatic organisms such as fish, which were isolated from the rest of the ocean. Each member of the food web Food chains are representative of the eating relationships between species within an ecosystem or a particular living place. Many types of food chains or webs are applicable depending on habitat or environmental factors. Every known food chain begins with a type of autotroph, an organism that is able to manufacture its own food, whether it be a was shown to take turns multiplying and declining, even though the scientists kept the outside conditions constant. An article in Journal Nature stated; "Advanced mathematical techniques proved the indisputable presence of chaos in this food web ... short-term prediction is possible, but long-term prediction is not."[3]
Research into climate change Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average . Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth has revealed a number of positive feedback Positive feedback, sometimes referred to as "cumulative causation", refers to a situation where some effect causes more of itself. A system undergoing positive feedback is unstable, that is, it will tend to spiral out of control as the effect amplifies itself mechanisms that could accelerate any global warming Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C between the start and the end of the 20th century.[A] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the rather than reduce it. These include increased water vapor in the atmosphere (acting as a greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The main greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. In our solar system, the atmospheres of Venus, Mars and); release of Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom. It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere in this state. CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere and methane Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees. Burning methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel. However, because it is a gas at from melting permafrost In geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes (; and the decreased ability of warmed oceans to hold carbon dioxide. It is unclear whether negative feedback effects may counter these mechanisms.
Human intervention
Although some conservationist organizations argue that human activity is incompatible with a balanced ecosystem, there are numerous examples in history showing that several modern day habitats originate from human activity: some of Latin America's rain forests owe their existence to humans planting and transplanting them, while the abundance of grazing animals in the Serengeti The Serengeti ecosystem is a geographical region located in north-western Tanzania and extends to south-western Kenya between latitudes 1 and 3 S and longitudes 34 and 36 E. It spans some 30,000 km2 plain of Africa is thought by some ecologists to be partly due to human-set fires that created savanna A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses habitats.[2]
Continued popularity of the theory
Despite being discredited among ecologists, the theory is widely held to be true in the wider population: a report written by psychologist Corinne Zimmerman of Illinois State University Illinois State University is a public university in Normal, Illinois, United States. Most commonly referred to as ISU, the school was founded in 1857 by Jesse W. Fell , making it Illinois's first public university; Abraham Lincoln drew up the legal documents to establish the university. The original name of the school was Illinois State Normal and ecologist Kim Cuddington of Ohio University Ohio University is a public university located in Athens, Ohio that is situated on an 1,800 acre campus. Founded in 1804, it is the oldest university in Ohio, oldest in the Northwest Territory, and ninth oldest public university in the United States demonstrated that at least in Midwestern America, the "balance of nature" idea is widely held among both science majors and the general student population.[4]
References
- ^ Belief in 'Balance of Nature' Hard to Shake
- ^ a b c d New Eye on Nature: The Real Constant Is Eternal Turmoil
- ^ Study of ocean life shows a "chaotic" balance of nature
- ^ Ambiguous, circular and polysemous: students' definitions of the "balance of nature" metaphor
Categories: Nature Nature is all matter and energy in the universe | Philosophical terminology
