Applying Ecological Input-Output Flow Analysis to Material Flows in Industrial Systems: Part I: Tracing Flows

Input-output mathematics, which allows a modeler to fully consider direct and indirect relationships among conserved flows in a system, has a long history in economics with prominent use dating to Leontief in the 1930s. Nearly all previous industrial applications of input-output analysis have been grounded in the monetary flows of an economy. Here however, because of the central nature of physical flows in the environmental impact of industry, we consider physical flows to be a fundamental component of an industrial economy. Hence, we propose an input-output based approach for modeling physical flows in industry independent of their monetary implications.
In this first part of a two-part article, a framework for using input-output mathematics to model material and energy flows is constructed from a foundation laid by previous research in nutrient and energy cycling in natural ecosystems. The mathematics of input-output flow analysis is presented from an ecological perspective, culminating in two core capabilities: tracing of flows with environs (investigated in this article) and characterizing system behavior with flow metrics (presented in the second article). We assert that environ analysis is an effective means for tracing flows through industrial systems while fully considering direct and indirect flow paths. We explore material flows of aluminum and five other metals in depth using environ analysis in this article.     

Rapid development of indirect effects in ecological networks

Indirect effects are important components of ecological and evolutionary interactions that may maintain biodiversity, enable or inhibit invasive species, and challenge ecosystem assessment and management. A central hypothesis of Network Environ Analysis (NEA), one type of ecological network analysis, is that indirect flows tend to dominate direct flows in ecosystem networks of conservative substance exchanges. However, current NEA methods assume that these ecosystems are stationary (i.e. time invariant exchange rates), which is unlikely to be true for many ecosystems for interesting time and space scales. For the work reported here, we investigated the sensitivity of the dominance of indirect effects hypothesis to the stationary modeling assumption by determining the development rate of indirect effects and flow intensity, as expressed as the number of transfer steps, in thirty‐one ecosystem models. We hypothesized that indirect effects develop rapidly in ecological networks, but that they would develop faster in biogeochemically based models than in trophically based models. In contrast, our results show that indirect effects develop rapidly in all thirty‐one models examined. In 94% of the models, indirect flows exceeded direct flows by a pathway length of 3. This indicates that ecological systems do not need to maintain a particular configuration for long for indirect effects to dominate. Thus, the dominance of indirect effects hypothesis remains plausible. We also found that biogeochemical models tended to require more of the extended path network than the trophic models to account for 50% and 95% of the total system activity, but that both types of models required more of the power series than is typically considered in engineered systems. These results succinctly illustrate the complexity of ecological systems and help explain why they are challenging to assess and manage.     

生态网络分析方法研究综述

生态网络分析方法是分析生态系统作用关系、辨识系统内在、整体属性的一种有效的系统分析方法。总结了生态网络分析方法的主要研究成果:网络结构特性、网络稳定性、网络上升性、网络效能等;介绍了构建生态网络模型过程和群落构建规则;以德国西部城市诺伊斯河口氮循环为例,介绍David K是如何运用生态网络分析方法来揭示网络中的微动力流循环规律。生态网络分析方法的主要贡献:(1)对人们凭经验感知的生态系统分室间的关联关系,采用了严密的数学模型和推导进行了描述和证明;(2)为生态系统的微动力流循环的研究提供了方法,对生态系统中物质流的间接循环作用进行了科学论证;(3)不仅为分析生态系统提供了一种科学的数学方法,而且,它为探索生态系统提供了不同与牛顿世界观的崭新的认识论。总结与回顾生态网络分析方法,有益于该方法的运用和进一步完善。     

Total energy costs in ecosystems

A micro and macro ecological system hypotheses and their associated theory of total (direct and indirect) energy cost have been proposed to explain the meaning of system growth and the steady state condition. Models have been proposed which can be used to test the hypotheses. In brief, the hypotheses are that while the components of an ecosystem strive to maximize their total direct and indirect energy storage within the constraints of their production characteristics, the overall system strives to minimize the metabolized energy per unit of stored biomass energy. The steady state result is a system with the largest possible stored biomass under the general constraints of water, air, soil and sunlight availability.Feeding strategies are discussed with the conclusion that a net total energy-maximizing feeding strategy may be able to replace the present concepts.     

生态流的构成和分析方法研究综述

人类活动带来的生态环境和土地利用变化是全球变化研究的重点内容之一。在复杂的自然生态系统中,各组分之间的物质循环、能量流动和信息传递通常以流态形式来表达,其路径、方向、强度、速率等对生态系统产生重要影响。系统分析了生态流的起源与发展,从能流、物质流和信息流三方面对生态流进行了解构,并对相关原理和分析方法进行了总结和述评。在现有研究基础上,以典型半人工半自然的农田生态系统为例,通过生态网络连接度等指标与纯自然生态系统对比分析生态流的流向、路径和强度等,人类活动增强了生态系统的灵活度,但扰乱了原有的稳定性。生态学家一直专注于研究适用于统一计算生态流的方法,其量化已具有一定的研究基础,但仍存在许多问题,在以后的研究中仍需系统地深入探索。     

The strength of ecological subsidies across ecosystems: a latitudinal gradient of direct and indirect impacts on food webs

Material and energy flows among ecosystems can directly and indirectly drive ecosystem functions. Yet, how populations of consumers respond to allochthonous inputs at a macroecological scale is still unclear. Using a meta‐analysis spanning several biomes, we show that the abundance of recipient populations is 36–57% larger with increased allochthonous inputs. The strength of direct effects on the recipients of these inputs as well as the indirect effects on the consumers of these recipients (i.e. ascending indirect effects) are constant across a latitudinal gradient spanning subtropical, arid, temperate, boreal and arctic ecosystems. However, indirect effect on the in situ resources of the input recipient (i.e. descending indirect effects) decreases with latitude. Our results suggest that the influence of allochthonous inputs can vary across large‐scale gradients of ecosystem productivity and may be driven by the types of trophic interactions within recipient food webs.     

农田土壤食物网管理的原理与方法

土壤食物网在维持生态系统生产力和健康等方面起着重要作用,但现代农业中,化肥农药等外部投入已经改变或部分替代了土壤食物网的功能,由此也造成一系列的环境问题。为了协调作物高产与环境保护的利益,需要对土壤食物网进行管理,使土壤食物网符合作物生长的需要,即建立健康土壤食物网。管理土壤食物网有两种方式:(1)直接方式,即通过调节食物网各个功能群的组成来管理土壤食物网;(2)间接方式,即根据农田土壤食物网以自下而上调控方式为主、强调低营养阶层的资源限制的原理,通过调节碎屑的数量和质量来管理食物网。在这两种调控方式中,都需要对被管理的食物网进行监测,监测的方式也分两种,一种是直接测定食物网各功能群的数量和生物量,另外一种方式即以线虫为工具来反应土壤食物网的结构。     

落叶收集法测定叶面积指数的快速取样方法

叶面积指数(LAI)是植被冠层结构的一个重要参数,它不仅是许多生态和气候模型的重要输入变量,而且是生态系统动态变化监测的一个重要指标。LAI可通过各种间接和直接的手段来观测,而间接观测的LAI值常常需要直接的观测数据来校验。落叶收集法是一种广泛使用的直接观测LAI的方法,过去的研究还未发现有涉及落叶收集的取样技术及其观测精度的内容。对长白山和北京地区落叶阔叶林的落叶进行了3a的观测,每年一次性收集落叶样品分析,研究结果表明:①不同层次落叶的含水量差异巨大,且落叶含水量的日变化明显。上下层落叶的含水量绝对值差异高达10%以上,日变化绝对值差异高达20%以上。因此,在野外收集落叶样本时,为减小落叶含水量变化所导致的LAI观测误差,应从上到下直到地面进行取样,且尽可能多地收集落叶样本。②在落叶阔叶人工林和天然林里,无论样地的大小(1hm2或30m×30m样地),无论取样单元的大小(1m2或25m2分辨率),林内的LAI分布很不均匀,LAI介于0-15.5(1m2分辨率的1hm2样地)或者2.6-9.1(25m2分辨率的30m×30m样地)。③要准确测定落叶林的LAI,收集落叶的样地面积越大越好,且尽量选择地势平坦的样地。对于1hm2或者30m×30m大小的样地,可随机布设一个10m×10m的小样地来观测,精度分别可达85%、80%。④10m×10m小样地的LAI观测,可将其分为4个相邻的5m×5m小样进行取样。对每个5m×5m小样,快速的取样方法是:Ⅰ.随机布设6个1m2取样,这样取样可以保证在99%概率水平上,100m2、30m×30m和1hm2样地的LAI观测精度分别为90%、75%、70%左右。Ⅱ.随机布设11个1m2取样。可以保证在99%概率水平上,100m2、30m×30m和1hm2样地的LAI观测精度分别为94%、80%、75%左右。     

介绍一种建立池塘能流模型的方法

系统生态学是对生物群落的生存、成长和死亡进行宏观研究。其系统方法论有多种处理问题的方法,特别是框图模型的应用尤其广泛,如在海洋、经济、城市、水体和陆地生态系统均有应用,但仅局限于画画框图讨论而已,并没有指出其应用的实际意义。还有一种系统动力学框图,属臆造模型。     

高校校园生态系统可控性

在环境问题日趋严重的背景下,人类一直在探索将城市生态系统改造成能够自身循环、更好利用可再生能源、同时大幅减少排放的受控系统,但由于该系统的复杂度太高,可控程度较低,其实现难度很大。高校校园可视为比较典型的城市生态系统的子系统,在合理的管控与现代信息技术的支持下,高校校园最有可能实现生态系统可控化建设。对四个主要生态流(物质流、能量流、人口流、信息流)在高校生态系统中的作用进行理论阐述,针对具有中国特色、学生大规模集中居住的高校校园,提出了一种新的受控生态系统改造方案。通过对现有校园生态工程技术进行组装,完成校园生态系统基础构筑。利用综合的校园生态系统信息流管理平台监管校园物质循环、能量流动、人口流动,探讨了可实现的高校受控生态系统的建设模式,最终提出了高校受控生态系统建设的理论模型,以期达到高校校园物质与能源利用效率最大化,降低碳排放,改善局部小型气候群,进而改善环境大气候。研究结果如能较好的应用到实践中,将为城市生态系统建设提供重要参考,意味着现代生态学将为人类发展作出一定的贡献。