Exergy as a Tool for Ecosystem Health Assessment

Exergy is demonstrated to be a useful measurable parameter reflecting the state of the ecosystem, and allowing estimation of the severity of its anthropogenous damage. Exergy is shown to have advantages such as good theoretical basis in thermodynamics, close relation to information theory, rather high correlation with others ecosystem goal functions and relative ease of computation. Nowadays exergy is often used in ecological assessment. This paper reviews the application of exergy in ecology in the fields of ecological modeling and natural ecosystem monitoring. Special attention is paid to the use of exergy for aquatic ecosystem studies, particularly, assessment of the lake Baikal ecosystem state.

[1]  Silvia Bargigli,et al.  Overcoming the inadequacy of single-criterion approaches to Life Cycle Assessment , 2006 .

[2]  Howard T. Odum,et al.  Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making , 1995 .

[3]  F. Pranovi,et al.  Historical changes in the structure and functioning of the benthic community in the lagoon of Venice. , 2008 .

[4]  M. Pardal,et al.  Estimation of ecological exergy using weighing parameters determined from DNA contents of organisms – a case study , 2004, Hydrobiologia.

[5]  Simone Bastianoni,et al.  Comparison between technological and ecological exergy , 2006 .

[6]  Fuliu Xu,et al.  Exergy and structural exergy as ecological indicators for the development state of the Lake Chaohu ecosystem , 1997 .

[7]  N. Kellam,et al.  Informing ecological engineering through ecological network analysis, ecological modelling, and concepts of systems and engineering ecology , 2007 .

[8]  Cédric Gaucherel,et al.  Influence of spatial patterns on ecological applications of extremal principles , 2006 .

[9]  Description of aquatic ecosystem's development by eco-exergy and exergy destruction , 2007 .

[10]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Parameters, ecological constraints and exergy , 1992 .

[11]  Riccardo Basosi,et al.  Exergy-economic accounting for sea-coastal systems: A novel approach , 2006 .

[12]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Towards A Thermodynamic Theory For Ecological Systems , 2004 .

[13]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Explanation of ecological rules and observation by application of ecosystem theory and ecological models , 2002 .

[14]  Li Yang,et al.  Exergy analysis on eco-industrial systems , 2006 .

[15]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Optimization of exergy and implications of body sizes of phytoplankton and zooplankton in an aquatic ecosystem model , 2001 .

[16]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Nuclear DNA in the determination of weighing factors to estimate exergy from organisms biomass , 2000 .

[17]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Structural changes in an estuary, described by models and using exergy as orientor , 2002 .

[18]  A. Sengupta.  Chaos, Nonlinearity, Complexity: A Unified Perspective , 2006 .

[19]  H. Odum,et al.  TIME'S SPEED REGULATOR: THE OPTIMUM EFFICIENCY FOR MAXIMUM POWER OUTPUT IN PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS , 2011 .

[20]  A. Koehler.  Water use in LCA: managing the planet’s freshwater resources , 2008 .

[21]  Young-Seuk Park,et al.  Patterning exergy of benthic macroinvertebrate communities using self-organizing maps , 2006 .

[22]  Eugene A. Silow,et al.  Aquatic ecosystem assessment using exergy , 2004 .

[23]  P. Glansdorff,et al.  Thermodynamic theory of structure, stability and fluctuations , 1971 .

[24]  Brian D. Fath,et al.  Exergy and Fisher Information as ecological indices , 2004 .

[25]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Calculations of exergy for organisms , 2005 .

[26]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Exergy for better environment and sustainability , 2009 .

[27]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Exergy as goal function of ecosystems dynamic , 1997 .

[28]  Simone Bastianoni,et al.  Environmental cost and steady state: the problem of adiabaticity in the emergy value , 1996 .

[29]  Sven Erik Jørgensen.  Review and comparison of goal functions in system ecology , 1994 .

[30]  Brian D. Fath,et al.  Exergy, information and aggradation: An ecosystems reconciliation , 2006 .

[31]  G. Alexandrov.  Forest growth in the light of the thermodynamic theory of ecological systems , 2008 .

[32]  Robert U. Ayres,et al.  Integrated assessment of the grand nutrient cycles , 1997 .

[33]  B. Dennis,et al.  Sixty years of environmental change in the world's largest freshwater lake – Lake Baikal, Siberia , 2008, Global Change Biology.

[34]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Analysis of the properties of exergy and biodiversity along an estuarine gradient of eutrophication , 1997 .

[35]  Santanu Ray,et al.  Study of biocomplexity in an aquatic ecosystem through ascendency , 2009, Biosyst..

[36]  Fuliu Xu,et al.  A method for lake ecosystem health assessment: an Ecological Modeling Method (EMM) and its application , 2001, Hydrobiologia.

[37]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Hysteresis in vegetation shift: Lake Mogan prognoses , 2003 .

[38]  Bernard C. Patten,et al.  Network integration of ecological extremal principles: exergy, emergy, power, ascendency, and indirect effects , 1995 .

[39]  Mark T. Brown,et al.  LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT INTENSITY INDEX , 2005, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[40]  J. Zaldívar,et al.  Application of specific exergy to macrophytes as an integrated index of environmental quality for coastal lagoons , 2007 .

[41]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Impact of eutrophication and river management within a framework of ecosystem theories , 2003 .

[42]  N. Niquil,et al.  Network analysis and inter-ecosystem comparison of two intertidal mudflat food webs (Brouage Mudflat and Aiguillon Cove, SW France) , 2007 .

[43]  Fuliu Xu.  Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling, 3rd Edition , 2003 .

[44]  E. D. Schneider,et al.  Complexity and thermodynamics: Towards a new ecology , 1994 .

[45]  A. J. Lotka.  Contribution to the Energetics of Evolution. , 1922, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[46]  J Dewulf,et al.  Cumulative exergy extraction from the natural environment (CEENE): a comprehensive life cycle impact assessment method for resource accounting. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[47]  A. Ludovisi.  Exergy vs information in ecological successions: Interpreting community changes by a classical thermodynamic approach , 2009 .

[48]  B. C. Patten,et al.  Complementarity of ecological goal functions. , 2001, Journal of theoretical biology.

[49]  Sovan Lek,et al.  Explanation of the observed structure of functional feeding groups of aquatic macro-invertebrates by an ecological model and the maximum exergy principle , 2002 .

[50]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Towards a Thermodynamic Theory for Ecological Systems. , 2005 .

[51]  William E. Grant,et al.  An overview of systems analysis methods in delineating environmental quality indices , 2000 .

[52]  C. S. Holling.  Resilience of ecosystems: local surprise and global change. , 1985 .

[53]  B. C. Patten,et al.  Ecosystems emerging:: 4. growth , 2000 .

[54]  S. Jørgensen.  Integration of Ecosystem Theories: A Pattern , 1994, Ecology & Environment.

[55]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Evolution and exergy , 2007 .

[56]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Ecosystems emerging: 1. conservation , 1997 .

[58]  H. Morowitz,et al.  Energy Flow in Biology , 1969 .

[59]  Gang Chen,et al.  Emergy-based energy and material metabolism of the Yellow River basin , 2009 .

[60]  F. Mathews.  Ecology and democracy , 1996 .

[61]  Shu Tao,et al.  Marine coastal ecosystem health assessment: a case study of the Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong, China , 2004 .

[62]  R. Ulanowicz,et al.  Ascendency as Ecological Indicator for Environmental Quality Assessment at the Ecosystem Level: A Case Study , 2006, Hydrobiologia.

[63]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Assessing the health of coastal marine ecosystems: A holistic approach based on sediment micro and meio-benthic measures , 2006 .

[64]  Holling's Figure-Eight Model: A Technical Reevaluation in Relation to Climate Change and Biodiversity , 1998 .

[65]  R. Ulanowicz.  Growth and development : ecosystems phenomenology , 1988 .

[66]  Alessandro Ludovisi,et al.  The strategy of ecosystem development: specific dissipation as an indicator of ecosystem maturity. , 2005, Journal of theoretical biology.

[67]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Ecological indicators for assessing freshwater ecosystem health , 1999 .

[68]  Daniel Hellström,et al.  Exergy analysis and nutrient flows of various sewerage systems , 1997 .

[69]  E. Silow.  The use of two lumped models for the analysis of consequences of external influences on the Lake Baikal ecosystem , 1999 .

[70]  Shu Tao,et al.  An ecosystem health index methodology (EHIM) for lake ecosystem health assessment , 2005 .

[71]  S. E. Jørgensen,et al.  Does the intermediate disturbance hypothesis comply with thermodynamics? , 1996, Hydrobiologia.

[72]  Changzhou Yan,et al.  Eutrophication conditions and ecological status in typical bays of Lake Taihu in China , 2007, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[73]  Jay F. Martin,et al.  Emergy evaluation of food production in urban residential landscapes , 2001, Urban Ecosystems.

[74]  S. Jørgensen.  Integration of Ecosystem Theories: A Pattern , 1997, Ecology & Environment.

[75]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Modeling the effects of ecological engineering on ecosystem health of a shallow eutrophic Chinese lake (Lake Chao) , 1999 .

[76]  B. Bakshi,et al.  Promise and problems of emergy analysis , 2004 .

[77]  Robert E. Ulanowicz,et al.  On the consistency between thermodynamical and network approaches to ecosystems , 2000 .

[78]  Brian D. Fath,et al.  Modelling the selective adaptation of Darwin’s Finches , 2004 .

[79]  S. Nielsen.  Examination and optimization of different exergy forms in macrophyte societies , 1997 .

[80]  Wilhelm Windhorst,et al.  Ecological risk as a tool for evaluating the effects of offshore wind farm construction in the North Sea , 2008 .

[81]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Ecosystems emerging: 2. Dissipation , 1999 .

[82]  Stefanie Hellweg,et al.  Applying cumulative exergy demand (CExD) indicators to the ecoinvent database , 2006 .

[83]  A. Ludovisi.  Use of thermodynamic indices as ecological indicators of the development state of lake ecosystems: Specific dissipation , 2006 .

[84]  G. Bendoricchio,et al.  Application of structural dynamic approach to estimate space variability of primary producers in shallow marine water , 1997 .

[85]  Eugene A. Silow,et al.  Climate Change and the World's “Sacred Sea”—Lake Baikal, Siberia , 2009 .

[86]  Wesley W. Ingwersen,et al.  Species diversity in the Florida Everglades, USA: A systems approach to calculating biodiversity , 2006, Aquatic Sciences.

[87]  S. Jørgensen,et al.  Investigation of thermodynamic properties in an ecological model developing from ordered to chaotic states , 2007 .

[88]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  EXERGY AND ECOLOGICAL BUFFER CAPACITY , 1979 .

[89]  Yuri M. Svirezhev,et al.  Thermodynamics and ecology , 2000 .

[90]  E. Silow.  The Changes of Ecosystem Goal Functions in Stressed Aquatic Communities , 1998 .

[91]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  State-of-the-art of ecological modelling with emphasis on development of structural dynamic models , 1999 .

[92]  Søren Nors Nielsen,et al.  Thermodynamics of an ecosystem interpreted as a hierarchy of embedded systems , 2000 .

[93]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Ecosystems emerging: 3. Openness , 1999 .

[94]  F. Colijn,et al.  Defining a good ecological status of coastal waters — a case study for the Elbe plume , 2005 .

[95]  D. L. Scarnecchia,et al.  Fundamentals of Ecological Modelling , 1995 .

[96]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Improved calibration of a eutrophication model by use of the size variation due to succession , 2002 .

[97]  Benjamin Burkhard,et al.  An ecosystem based framework to link landscape structures, functions and services , 2007 .

[98]  G. Spiegelman,et al.  Money as Social Exergy , 2007 .

[99]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  Application of holistic thermodynamic indicators , 2006 .

[100]  Simone Bastianoni,et al.  Emergy/exergy ratio as a measure of the level of organization of systems , 1997 .

[101]  B. C. Patten,et al.  Ecosystem growth and development. , 2004, Bio Systems.

[102]  The Concept of Agricultural Productivity on Ecosystem Scale and Its Measurement , 2006 .

[103]  Sven Erik Jørgensen,et al.  A structurally dynamic modelling—Lake Mogan, Turkey as a case study , 2003 .

[104]  A. Nicklisch,et al.  Regional, vertical and seasonal distribution of phytoplankton and photosynthetic pigments in Lake Baikal , 2005 .

[105]  Yuri M. Svirezhev,et al.  Nonlinearities in mathematical ecology: Phenomena and models Would we live in Volterra's world? , 2008 .

[106]  Yuri M. Svirezhev,et al.  Exergy of solar radiation: information approach , 2001 .

[107]  Ilya Prigogine,et al.  Modération et transformation irréversible des systèmes ouverts , 1945 .

[108]  S. Libralato,et al.  Exergy as ecosystem indicator: An application to the recovery process of marine benthic communities , 2006 .

[109]  Alessandro Ludovisi,et al.  Use of thermodynamic indices as ecological indicators of the development state of lake ecosystems: 2. Exergy and specific exergy indices , 2003 .