ENV100Y5Y

Environment
Systems & Cycles
Reading: Chapter 3
These lectures will help you understand:

• Systems, cycles, reservoirs, and

fluxes
• The nature of environmental
systems and cycles
• Feedback loops
• How environmental scientists
use and portray these concepts
using models
Central Case: The Plight of the St.
Lawrence Belugas

• The beluga is “vulnerable” and is an indicator for the

Great Lakes–St. Lawrence ecosystem
• Decreasing population – GI cancers
• Pollutants come downstream from Great Lakes
- Agrochemicals – hypoxia, eutrophication
- Organochlorides (e.g., PCBs)
• Biomagnification of contaminants
• Requires a systems-based approach
A system is…

…a portion of the universe that can be separated from

the rest, for the purpose of studying changes that
occur within it, under changing conditions.
Environmental science today takes a
systems approach

• Environmental entities are complex systems that

interact with each other
• Network of relationships among components that
interact with and influence one another
• To solve environmental problems, all appropriate
systems must be considered
• Many other disciplines also use a systems approach
and General Systems Theory
Environmental systems tend to be complex
Example: a watershed

Figure 3.3
Categorizing systems makes Earth’s
complexity more understandable

• Major Earth spheres:

- Geosphere
- Atmosphere
- Hydrosphere
- Biosphere
• Boundaries overlap,
systems and subsystems
interact
There are different types of systems

• Types of systems – based on properties of boundaries

- Closed system: energy can be exchanged across the
boundaries, but matter cannot
- Open system: both matter and energy can be
exchanged across the boundaries
Environmental systems and subsystems
Most environmental systems are open
Most environmental systems are
open, but…

• Earth itself approximates a closed system.

• Living in a closed system has some consequences:
- Resources are finite and limited.
- There is no “away” to throw things to.
- “What goes around, comes around.”
- Principle of Environmental Unity
Systems show several basic
properties

• Dynamic equilibrium – systems are constantly

changing, interacting, balancing
• Homeostasis – many systems tend to maintain stable
internal conditions (= Resistance)
• Resilience – some systems (not all) recover easily
from disturbances
• Emergent properties – system characteristics not
evident in individual components on their own
Emergent properties

EMERGENT PROPERTIES OF SYSTEM

• Emergent properties: system

characteristics not evident in
individual components on
their own
- The whole is more than the
sum of the parts

INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS OF SYSTEM

FIGURE 3.2
Systems and cycles consist of
interconnected reservoirs

• A cycle is…
- a system of two or more connected reservoirs, in
which material (or energy) is transferred in a cyclical
fashion.
- a way of understanding and modeling where
substances come from, where they go, where they
“reside” in the Earth system, and how they are
transferred and transformed.
• Many but not all natural processes are best described
as cycles.
Systems and cycles consist of
interconnected reservoirs

• Matter and energy in systems and cycles obey the

rules of thermodynamics but they behave somewhat
differently:
- Matter is recycled through environmental systems,
changing form as it goes.
- Energy comes into the Earth system, flows through, is
used and degraded, and then exits the system.
- Energy cannot be created or destroyed but it can be
degraded and transformed.
- Matter and energy are essentially equivalent; conservation of
mass = conservation of total energy.
Systems and cycles consist of
interconnected reservoirs

• Reservoirs (or “pools”) can be defined by:

- Physical boundaries (like a “holding tank”)
- The ocean
- An organism
- A magma chamber under a volcano
- Contents (a “mass” of material)
- Ozone in the stratosphere
- Fish in the ocean
- Mercury in ocean fish
Cycles can be portrayed visually,
graphically, or mathematically

• When we portray the characteristics and functioning

of a cycle or any other environmental process, it’s
called a model.
• Models of natural cycles
and other processes can be:
- physical models
- landscape drawings
- box models
- mathematical models
Simple landscape drawing – hydrologic cycle
 Atmosphere
8%

14% 22% 78% 86%

Rivers
Land Ocean
8%

Simple box model of the hydrologic cycle

Cycles can be portrayed quantitatively

• Box models typically give quantitative information

about…
- Reservoirs (= boxes)
- Contents (= numbers in the boxes)
- Transfer processes (= arrows)
- Fluxes (= numbers on the arrows)
• Box models are the first step in developing
mathematical and computer models.
- Each process, flux, etc. is described by a
mathematical equation.
 Weathering & River Flux

Sea Spray

Evaporites

Burial
Rocks Oceans

Midocean Ridges

A simple 2-reservoir example: the sodium cycle

The content of a reservoir is a function
of both concentration and overall size

Content (or burden) of a reservoir

= total mass of a substance in the reservoir
= concentration x mass of physical unit

• Compare: small, high concentration reservoir vs.

large, low-concentration reservoir
The content of a reservoir is a function
of both concentration and overall size

• Content = concentration x mass of physical unit

• Example: content of sodium (Na) in seawater
= 10.78 g/kg (salinity of seawater)
x 1.4 x 1021 kg (total mass of the ocean)
= 15.1 x 1021 g = burden of Na (as NaCl) in seawater
 Weathering & River Flux

Sea Spray

Evaporite Formation

Burial
Rocks Oceans
15.1 x 1021 g

10.78 g/kg (salinity of seawater)

x 1.4 x 1021 kg (mass of ocean)
= 15.1 x 1021 g
Midocean Ridges

The sodium cycle

Some questions to think about:

• How would you calculate the content of Na in the

box labeled “Rocks” on the sodium cycle box
model?
• How would you calculate the content of PCB
(polychlorinated biphenyl) in Lake Ontario?
• What would you need to know to calculate the
content or burden of Hg (mercury) in the reservoir of
fish in Lake Ontario?
• How would you calculate the content or burden of
mercury in the reservoir of your body?
Matter is transferred via cycles

• Transfer processes:
- Mechanisms that cause substances to move from one
reservoir to another
- Physical, chemical, biological, geological, or a
combination
- Examples:
- Hydrologic cycle: precipitation, runoff, etc.
- Rock cycle: erosion, sedimentation, etc.
- Sodium cycle: sea spray, evaporation, etc.
 Weathering & River Flux

Sea Spray

Evaporite Formation

Rocks Burial Oceans

15.1 x 1021 g

Reactions at Midocean Ridges

The sodium cycle

Fluxes are flows of matter into and out
of reservoirs

• Flux = amount of material transferred, described in

terms of mass or volume per unit of time
- Examples:
- evaporation of water from ocean surface to
atmosphere ~383 x 1018 g/yr H2O
- deposition of organic carbon in marine sediments
~0.2 x 1012 g/yr organic carbon
- emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from volcanoes
~0.1 x 1012 g/yr carbon as CO2
 Weathering & River Flux 3.2 x 1014 g/yr

Sea Spray 0.6 x 1014 g/yr

Evaporites 0.7-1.1 x 1014 g/yr

Burial 0.5 x
1014 g/yr
Rocks Oceans
15.1 x 1021 g

Midocean Ridges
1.0-1.4 x 1014 g/yr

The sodium cycle

Fluxes are flows of matter into and out
of reservoirs

• Fluxes are controlled by rates of transfer processes

and capacities of reservoirs
• Source: where the flux is coming from
- A source gives out more than it takes in
• Sink: where the flux is going
- A sink takes in more than it gives out
• If Sources = Sinks → Steady State
 Source

Reservoir

Content (Burden)

Steady State Burden is constant

Sources = Sinks

Sink
 Source

Reservoir

Sources < Sinks Burden is decreasing

Sink
Reservoir

Time required for

Sources = zero burden to run out =
Sinks = constant Turnover Time
Sink
 Source

Reservoir

Content (Burden)

Sources > Sinks Burden is increasing

Sink
 Source

Reservoir

Content (Burden)

Sinks = zero Time required to “fill”

Sources = constant ≡ Turnover Time
 Source

Reservoir

Average time spent

by a molecule of the At steady state,
material of interest in Turnover Time =
the reservoir = Residence Time
Sink
Residence Time
Sometimes cycles are affected by
feedback loops

• Positive feedback:
- Self-reinforcing, self-perpetuating “vicious” cycle
• Negative feedback:
- Self-regulating, self-limiting, homeostatic cycle
Positive feedback loop

• Output from the system acts as an input that drives the system
farther in the same direction – toward one extreme or another

See FIGURE 3.1

 ↑ Surface
temperature

+
↑ Evaporation
↑ Absorption of
IR by GHGs from ocean
+

↑ Water
vapour in
atmosphere

Positive Feedback Loop

Negative feedback loop

• Output from the system acts as an input that moves the

system in the opposite direction – stabilizing it or returning
it to the starting point

See FIGURE 3.1

 ↑ Surface
temperature

+ _
↑ Absorption of ↑ Albedo ↑ Evaporation
IR by GHGs from ocean
+

Negative ↑ Cloud cover

Feedback Loop
Conclusions

• Environmental systems tend to be complex open

systems with many interacting subsystems.
• Using a systems approach helps scientists portray
and understand some of the complexity of
environmental systems.
• Much of environmental science focuses on
understanding and modeling the interactions among
environmental systems and subsystems, including
feedback loops.