TOPIC 1.

2: SYSTEMS AND MODELS

1.2 Systems and Models

Significant ideas:
1) A systems approach can help in the study of complex
environmental issues.
2) The use of systems and models simplifies interactions
but may provide a more holistic view without reducing
issues to single processes

Everything is linked
to everything else
1.2 Systems and Models

Big questions
⦿What strengths and weaknesses of the systems
approach and the use of models have been revealed
through this topic?
⦿How does a systems approach facilitate a holistic
approach to understanding?
⦿What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
systems you have examined in this section?
⦿What have you learned about models and how they
can be used, for example, to predict climate change?
Do their benefits outweigh their limitations?
What is a systems approach?

❏ A systems approach is a
way of visualizing a
complex set of interactions
which may be ecological or
societal.
Why do we use systems?
❏ A system is an assemblage of
parts and their relationship
forming a functioning entirety
or whole

❏ Useful for understanding and

explaining certain phenomena

❏ By focusing on the interactions

instead of the different parts,
we can more clearly see the big
picture of how our world works
⚫ A system is something that:
⚫ Is made up of individual parts
⚫ The parts all work together
⚫ Parts work to perform a particular function
• A bicycle is an example of a
system
Bicycle parts piled on the floor
Is this a system?
Gaia Hypothesis – James Lovelock
⚫ Mid 1960’s
⚫ Proposed that plant
Earth is a single living
system (global system)
⚫ Earth maintains
homeostasis
(temperatue, climate,
ocean, salinity)
• Each part has a
specialized function
• Similar parts are grouped
together
• Groups coordinate
functions
• Emergent properties: the
whole can do things the
individual parts cannot
• Reductionist Approach: Look at each individual part
• Holistic Approach: Looking at how everything works
together

We will look at both

⚫ Works for everything from
a single celled organism to
our planet and beyond
⚫ Living or non-living

⚫ Universe as a system
⚫ Earth as a system
⚫ A specific biome (rainforest)
⚫ Specific ecosystem (Amazon)
⚫ River bank in Amazon
⚫ Plant on river bank
⚫ Leaf on a plant

The concept of a system can be applied at a range of scales

⚫ Systems consist of:
⚫ Storage
⚫ Flows
⚫ Processes
⚫ Feedback mechanisms
that maintain stability
and equilibrium
⚫ Example: Human
Some definitions
⚫ Input- energy or matter enters a system.
⚫ Output- something produced at the end of a system
⚫ Storage- areas where energy or matter is accumulated
inside a system
⚫ Flow- movement of energy or matter within a system
⚫ Boundaries- outside/edge of a system
⚫ Ecological systems are made up of many parts and
follow laws
⚫ The interrelationship between these parts produces
the behavior as a whole
These flows provide inputs and outs of energy and
matter
⚫ Matter cycles through an ecosystem.
⚫ Nitrogen is fixed by bacteria
⚫ Plants assimilate the nitrogen
⚫ Herbivores consume these plants and the nitrogen
compounds pass through the food chain.
⚫ Eventually the plants or animals will die and
decomposer break down organic matter and return it to
the soil.
⚫ There is a stock of
chemical potential
energy in the flesh
of animals.
⚫ This same flesh is
composed
primarily of
proteins.
⚫ The amino acids
making up these
proteins contains a
nitrogen stock.
 Flows

Transfers; Tranformations;
Changes in Changes in chemical
location nature, state or energy
⚫ Energy initially enters ecosystems from the sun as
light.
⚫ It is converted and stored as chemical potential energy
⚫ Organic molecules pass through down through chains.
⚫ Respiration releases this energy
⚫ All energy enters an ecosystem and is lost again. .

Transfer or transformation?
⚫ In photosynthesis, light
energy is transformed to
chemical energy in
glucose, which is then
transformed to mechanical
and thermal energy when
eaten by consumers
⚫ Transformations require a change from one type of
energy to another (i.e. chemical to potential to
mechanical to thermal)
⚫ Some energy is always lost due to thermodynamics
⚫ Transfers are simple: an organism or process relocates
matter or energy
⚫ Crops removed from the farm and taken to market
⚫ Individuals or populations migrate in/out of an area
⚫ Matter transformations:
⚫ Solid – Liquid – Gas
⚫ Precipitation strikes the
ground and runs off to a
stream
⚫ transfer
⚫ Stream water evaporates
into the atmosphere
⚫ transformation
In system diagrams, storages are usually represented as
rectangular boxes and flows as arrows, with the direction
of eh arrow indicating the direction of each flow. The size
of the boxes and the arrows may be representative of
the size/magnitude of the storage or flow
• Open system: a system in
which both materials and
energy are exchanged
across the boundaries of
the system
• Most common system
• Example: Rainforest,
Ecosystems
Example of an open system

• Forest ecosystem:
• Plants fix light via photosynthesis
• Air nitrogen is fixed by soil bacteria
• Herbivores may graze in other ecosystems
• Forest fires expose soil to erosio
• Minerals are leached by rain
• Water is lost in evaporation
• Eat is exchanged with surrounding environment
⚫ Closed System: A system in
which energy is exchanged
across the boundaries but
matter is not. THIS IS VERY
RARE!!
⚫ Examples: The Whole
Earth…maybe,
Experimentally
⚫ Global geochemical cycles
approximate a closed system
1.2.U8 An open system exchanges both energy and matter across
its boundary while a closed system exchanges only energy across
its boundary

Biosphere 2
An isolated system is a hypothetical concept in which
neither energy nor matter is exchanged across the
boundary
Ecosystems are open systems; closed systems only exist
experimentally, although the global geochemical cycles
approximate to closed systems
A model is a simplified version of reality and can be used to
understand how a system works and to predict how it will respond
to change
What do all these pictures have
in common?
• Ecosystems are large and
therefore difficult to
study in a lab
• Ecosystems have many
interrelated and
independent feedback
loops
• Simplifying systems
inevitably leads leaving
some parts out
 Doing so increas
⚫ Leaving parts out d e c r e as e s ac c u
e s er r or s a n d
changes the functionally ra c y
of the whole (emergent
properties)

A model inevitably involves some approximations and

therefore los of accuracy
Advantages Disadvantages
⚫ Can predict and simplify ⚫ May not be accurate
complex systems ⚫ Rely on the expertise of those
⚫ Inputs can be changed and making it
outputs examined without ⚫ Different people may interpret
waiting for real events them in different ways
⚫ Results can be shown to others ⚫ Vested interests may hijack
them politically
⚫ Only as good as the data that
goes in
⚫ Different models may show
different effects with same data
1.2 Systems and Models

Big questions
⦿What strengths and weaknesses of the systems
approach and the use of models have been revealed
through this topic?
⦿How does a systems approach facilitate a holistic
approach to understanding?
⦿What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
systems you have examined in this section?
⦿What have you learned about models and how they
can be used, for example, to predict climate change?
Do their benefits outweigh their limitations?
Construct a system diagram or a model from a given set of
information

• Your diagram must contain at least 3 types of each of

the following:
– Abiotic elements
– Autotrophs (plants/bacteria)
– Primary consumers (herbivores)
– Secondary consumers (omnivores)
– Tertiary consumers (carnivores)
• Organism numbers must have the necessary resources
in the ecosystem to maintain its carrying capacity
⚫ Where would these fit in this carbon cycle system
diagram?
⚫ Abiotic element
⚫ Autotrophs
⚫ Primary consumers
⚫ Secondary consumers
⚫ Tertiary consumers
• Here is a systems
diagram of energy
consumption
patterns in the US
(2015)
• Note how the size
of each storage
(box) and flow
(arrow)
corresponds with
the magnitude of
the component
1.2.A2 Evaluate the use of models as a tool in a given situation,
for example, climate change predictions

⚫ Click on the climate model simulations below.

Discuss the strengths and weakness of each of
these models. Which model is best for
understanding climate change? Justify and
support your answer with evidence.
⚫ Concord Consortium Climate Model
⚫ Window’s to the Universe Climate Model
⚫ Koshland Science Museum Climate Model
⚫ UCAR Climate Model
⚫ Java Climate Model