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Ecology Revisited pp 183–194Cite as

The Rise of Systems Theory in Ecology

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Abstract

The emergence of systems theory in ecology, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, was accompanied by the hope that ecology might turn into an exact science with prognostic potential and a set of uniform theoretical foundations. The impact of systems theory on ecology was manifested mainly in the formulation and development of ecosystem theory. The widely-held view is that ecosystem theory is concerned primarily with units comprising communities of organisms of various species and the abiotic environment of these communities. The components of systems are seen to interact with one another.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The most prominent is probably the gestalt concept in psychology (Köhler 1920), but see also the field concept(s) in physics, and the “gestalt laws” (Bertalanffy 1926, 1929). The role of the latter with respect to ecology is discussed in Schwarz (1996).

  2. 2.

    Boulding 1941, 1953, 1956; Bertalanffy 1950, 1951, 1955; Gerard 1940, 1953; Rapoport 1947, 1950. Also cf. Davidson 1983; Müller 1996; Hammond 2003.

  3. 3.

    “A system can be defined as a complex of interacting elements p1, p2 … pn. Interaction means that the elements stand in a certain relation, R, so that their behaviour in R is different from their behaviour in another relation, R′.” (Bertalanffy 1950, p. 143).

  4. 4.

    Bertalanffy 1950, 1955, 1968; also cf. Müller 1996; Schwarz 1996; Voigt 2001.

  5. 5.

    More modern systems theoretical variants include non-equilibrium thermodynamics (Prigogine 1955) and theories about adaptive, self-organised and self-referential systems, e.g. autopoiesis (Maturana and Varela 1987).

  6. 6.

    On the theory of the transfer of ideas from ecology to systems theory, Chap. 27.

  7. 7.

    On this debate, see e.g. Tobey 1981, p. 76–109; Worster 1985, p. 205–220; McIntosh 1995, p. 76–85, 1995; Trepl 1987, p. 139–158; Hagen 1992, p. 15–32; Golley 1993, p. 8–34; Botkin 1990; Jax 2002; Chaps. 19 and 20.

  8. 8.

    The radical individualist position (Peus 1954) rejects the notion of associations as an object of science because it sees them as “fictions”.

  9. 9.

    Previous approaches to conceptualising communities along with their environment include Thienemann’s concept of the biosystem (Thienemann and Kieffer 1916) and Friederichs’ concept of the holocoen (1927). However, these differ from the concept of ecosystem on account of their holistic-morphological and/or holistic-organicist orientation (Chap. 4).

  10. 10.

    In addition, the concept of ecosystem research is related to the fact that everything is considered that is relevant ecologically in a specific site. That is, not only all the organisms are considered but all edaphic and climatic factors as well.

  11. 11.

    The Macy Conferences, in which figures such as N. Wiener, J. von Neumann, R. Gerard, G. Bateson, A. Rosenblueth, M. Mead, J. von Foerster and G.E. Hutchinson participated, contributed decisively towards the dissemination of cybernetic approaches in the 1940s and 1950s far beyond the sphere of their technical application, into areas such as the social sciences, psychology, biology and the human and life sciences (cf. Taylor 1988; Heims 1993; Pias and Foerster 2003).

  12. 12.

    An overview of more recent developments in ecosystem theory can be found in Frontier and Leprêtre 1998, also cf. articles in Pomeroy and Alberts 1988; Higashi and Burns 1991; Vogt et al. 1997; Pace and Groffman 1998; Jørgensen and Müller 2000; see also Chap. 27.

  13. 13.

    For the opposing position, cf. Engelberg and Boyarsky 1979.

  14. 14.

    E.g. Margalef 1958, 1968; on more modern information theoretical ecosystem approaches, see Ulanowicz 1997; Nielsen 2000; see also Hauhs and Lange 2003.

  15. 15.

    Cf. Taylor 1988; Hagen 1992; Golley 1993.

  16. 16.

    “A system is a set of objects together with relationships between the objects and between their attributes” (Hall and Fagen 1956, p. 18).

  17. 17.

    Müller 1996.

  18. 18.

    Cf. Tobey 1981; Jax 1998.

  19. 19.

    Müller 1996.

  20. 20.

    Cf. Weil 1999.

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  1. Urban and Landscape Ecology Group, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstraße 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Annette Voigt

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  1. Institute of Philosophy, Technical University of Darmstadt, Schloss, Darmstadt, 64283, Germany

    Astrid Schwarz

  2. , Department of Conservation Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Resea, Permoserstr. 15, Leipzig, 04318, Germany

    Kurt Jax

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Voigt, A. (2011). The Rise of Systems Theory in Ecology. In: Schwarz, A., Jax, K. (eds) Ecology Revisited. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9744-6_15

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