Preface: The Thermodynamic Theater and an Evolutionary Play.
Part 1: Theory (To Understand Economics, Follow the Money. To Understand Ecosystems, Follow the Energy.)
1. Two Views of Ecology
2. What Can We Learn from Studying Ecosystems that We Can't Learn from Studying Species?
3. A Thermodynamic Definition of Ecosystems 4. Thermodynamic Characteristics of Ecosystems
5. Ecosystem Control: A Top-Down View
6. Ecosystem Control: A Bottom-Up View
7. Ecosystem Stability
8. Case Studies of Ecosystem Control and Stability 9. Entropy and Maximum Power
10. A Thermodynamic View of Succession
11. Panarchy
12. A Thermodynamic View of Evolution
13. Why Is Species Diversity Higher in the Tropics? 14. The Rest of the Story
15. Objections to the Ecosystem Concept
Part 2: Applied (Agricultural Problems are Systems Problems)
16. Maximum Power vs. Maximum Efficiency
17. Energetic Costs and Benefits of Nature's Services
18. Feedback and Stability in Coffee Production Systems
19. Energetic Costs and Benefits of Domestication 20. Feedback and Stability in Economic Food Systems
21. Natural Capital: A Case Study
22. Agroforestry: Capturing Entropy
23. What has Cybernetic Theory Taught us about Agricultural Sustainability?
Conclusion
24. What Have We Learned from a Thermodynamic Approach to Evolution?
Appendices
1. Ecosystem Boundaries
2. Gaia 3. Thermodynamic Niches
4. The Keystone Concept
5. The Maximum Power Principle
6. Problems of Industrial Agriculture
7. Calculations for Table 17.2
8. Thermodynamic Principles in Ecosystem Studies
9. How to Study an Ecosystem when you are Standing in the Middle of It
References
About the Author: Carl F. Jordan is Professor Emeritus at the Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He was awarded the Ecological Society of America's Mercer 1973 award for his work on stability of ecosystems. He has continued the development of a holistic view of ecology for four decades. Throughout that time, he has published 10 books and over 100 peer-reviewed papers on ecosystem theory and its application to management and conservation of natural resources, and has mentored over 30 graduate students in their studies of human impact on ecosystems of Central and South America and Southeast Asia. Those experiences influenced the theme highlighted in Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective that ecosystems are cybernetic systems and their stability depends on feedback modulated by autocatalysis at the decomposer-autotroph interface.
In 1993, he acquired a badly eroded 100-acre farm in Georgia that was part of a cotton plantation prior to the Civil War, and used it as a living laboratory for research, education, and outreach on rehabilitation of degraded soils while simultaneously providing economic income. Thousands of students from K-12 through Universities in Northeast Georgia have toured the farm and performed laboratory exercises on sustainable agriculture. There they learned that agricultural sustainability depends on autocatalysis at the decomposer-autotroph interface. Autocatalysis depends on nutrients release from soil organic matter, so soil organic matter is the key to sustainability.
