نظریه پیچیدگی و اندازه‌‌گیری پیچیدگی اکوسیستم‌‌ها در سیمای سرزمین

نوع مقاله : مقاله ترویجی

نویسندگان

دانشگاه علوم کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی گرگان

چکیده

پیچیدگی مفهومی مبهم در بوم‌‌شناسی است که در مطالعه‌های مختلفی به منظور توصیف وضعیت یک اکوسیستم به کارگرفته شده است. نویسندگان بسیاری اذعان کرده‌‌اند که اکوسیستم نمونه‌‌ای از یک سیستم پیچیده است. کنش‌‌های متقابل میان موجودات منجر به پیچیدگی اکوسیستم‌‌ها می‌‌شود و کنش‌‌های متقابل میان موجودات و محیط‌‌ بی‌جان نیز بر این پیچیدگی تاثیر می‌‌گذارد. اکوسیستم‌‌ها از طریق فرایند خودسازمان‌‌دهی به سوی پیچیدگی بیش‌‌تر حرکت می‌‌کنند و پیچیده‌‌ترین سیستم‌‌ها در محدوده بینابینی نظم و بی‌‌نظمی قرار می‌‌گیرند (Parrott, 2010). آشفتگی‌‌های طبیعی موجب می‌‌شوند تا اکوسیستم به سوی وضعیت بی‌‌نظمی حرکت کند در حالی که دخالت‌‌های انسان این سیستم‌‌ها را به سوی نظم بیش‌‌تر سوق می‌‌دهد که موجب پیچیدگی کم‌‌تر اکوسیستم‌‌ها می‌‌شود. امروزه، نبود شناخت و درکی کافی از مفهوم پیچیدگی موجود در اکوسیستم‌‌ها منجر به تخریب اکوسیستم‌‌های مهمی شده است و احیا و بازسازی آن ها را مشکل تر ساخته است. زیرا، این اکوسیستم‌‌ها حاصل کنش‌‌های متقابل میان مولفه‌‌های تشکیل دهنده خود بوده‌‌اند و با از بین رفتن یکی از این مولفه‌‌ها کارکرد سایر مولفه‌‌ها نیز با مشکل روبه‌رو شده است. این مطالعه با هدف تشریح مفهوم پیچیدگی به عنوان یک ویژگی مهم از اکوسیستم‌‌ها و معرفی معیارهای اندازه‌‌گیری این پیچیدگی تلاش می‌‌‌‌کند تا دانش کارشناسان و مدیران محیط‌‌زیست را نسبت به اثرات ناشی از فعالیت‌‌های انسانی افزایش دهد. معیارهای به کارگرفته شده به منظور توصیف پیچیدگی اکوسیستم‌‌ها شامل معیارهای مکانی، زمانی، ساختاری و مکانی- زمانی هستند. باید خاطر نشان کرد که اگر معیارهای مناسبی به منظور توصیف پیچیدگی اکوسیستم‌‌ها توسعه داده شود، آنگاه می‌‌توان پیچیدگی بوم‌‌شناختی را به عنوان شاخصی بوم‌‌شناختی در بررسی سیماهای سرزمین به کارگرفت.

کلیدواژه‌ها


عنوان مقاله [English]

Complexity Theory and Measuring Complexity of Ecosystems in a Landscape

نویسندگان [English]

  • Ehsan Rahimi
  • Abdolrasoul Slaman Mahini
Gorgan Univercity
چکیده [English]

Complexity is an elusive term in ecology that is often used in different ways to describe the state of an ecosystem. Many authors have claimed that an ecosystem is a prototypical complex system. Interactions between organisms lead to complexity in ecosystems while interactions between organisms and their environment also contribute to this complexity. An ecosystem tends towards greater complexity via the process of self-organization, which draws the system away from the two extremes of order and disorder to a state of maximal complexity. Natural disturbance events may cause an ecosystems state to tend towards greater disorder, whereas human intervention can move the system state towards greater order. Today, lack of adequate knowledge about complexity in ecosystems has led to destruction of many ecosystems such that their rehabilitation and restoration has become very hard. For this reason, the preset study aimed to explain the concept of complexity as one of the important attributes in ecosystems and enhance knowledge of experts and managers on environment. We used the temporal, spatial, structure and tempo-spatial measures adapted to describe the complexity of ecosystems. It is argued that if appropriate measures are developed and validated for ecosystems, ecological complexity could become a key ecological indicator.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Complexity theory
  • Complex systems
  • Measuring complexity of ecosystems
  • Self- organization
  • Human activities
Allen, T.F.H. & Starr, T.B. 1982. Hierarchy. Perspectives for ecological complexity. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London.
Allen, T.F.H. & Hoekstra, T.W. 1992. Toward a unified ecology. Columbia University Press, New York.
Albert, R.; Hawoong, J. & Barabasi, A. 2000. Error and attack tolerance of complex networks. Nature, 406.
Anand, M. & Orloci, L. 1996. Complexity in plant communities: the notion and quantification. J. Theor. Biol. 179: 179–186.
Arii, K.; Derome, R. & Parrott, L. 2007. Examining the potential effects of species aggregation on the network structure of food webs. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 69, 119–133.
Atmanspacher, H. 2007. A semiotic approach to complex systems. In: Mehler, A., Kohler, R. (Eds.), Aspects of Automatic Text Analysis. Springer, Berlin, 79–91.
August, P. 1983. The role of habitat complexity and heterogeneity in structuring tropical mammal communities. Ecology, 1495–1507.
Barabasi, A. 2009. Scale-free networks: a decade and beyond. Science 325, 412–413.
Barabasi, A. & Albert, R., 1999. Emergence of scaling in random networks. Science 286, 509–512.
Barbieri, M. 2003. The organic code. An introduction to semantic biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Barnsley, M. 1993. Fractals Everywhere. Academic Press, London.
Bascompte, J. 2009. Disentangling the web of life. Science 325, 416–419.
Bates, J.E. & Shepard, H.K. 1993. Measuring complexity using information fluctuation. Physics Letters A 172, 416–425.
Benincà, E.; Huisman, J.; Heerkloss, R.; Johnk, K.; Branco, P.; Van Nes, E.; Scheffer, M. & Ellner, S. 2008. Chaos in a long-term experiment with a plankton community. Nature 451, 822–825.
Bjornstad, O.; Ims, R. & Lambin, X. 1999. Spatial population dynamics: analyzing patterns and processes of population synchrony. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14, 427–432.
Bossomaier, T.R.J. & Green, D.G. 1998. Patterns in the Sand. Sydney, Allen and Unwin.
Bossomaier, T.R.J. & Green, D.G. 2000. Complex Systems. New York, Cambridge Univ. Press.
Bottin, Z. 2009. Spatio-Temporal Complexity of the Sea Surface Temperatures of the Philippines. The University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
Carlson, J.M. & Doyle, J. 2002. Complexity and robustness. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 99, pp. 2538–2545.
Chaitin, G. 1977. Algorithmic information theory. IBM Journal of Research and Development 21, 350–359.
Dunne, J.A.; Williams, R.J. & Martinez, N. 2002. Network structure and biodiversity loss in food webs: robustness increases with connectance. Ecology Letters 5, 558–567.
Farina, A.; Bogaert, J. & Schipani, I. 2004. Cognitive landscape and information: new perspectives to investigate the ecological complexity. BioSystems 79: 235–240.
Farina, A. 2006. Principle and methods in landscape ecology: Toward a science of landscape. Springer. P 435.
Fath, B.; Jorgensen, S.; Patten, B. & Straskraba, M. 2004. Ecosystem growth and development. BioSystems 77, 213–228.
Gell-Mann, M. & Lloyd, S. 1996. Information measures, effective complexity and total information. Complexity 2, 44–52.
Grassberger, P. 1988. Complexity and forecasting in dynamical systems. In: Peliti, L., Vulpiani, A. (Eds.), Measures of Complexity. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 1–22.
Green, D.G. & Klomp, N.I. 1997. Networking Australian biological research. Australian Biologist 10: 117–120.
Green, D.G.; Klomp, N.; Rimmington, G. & Sadedin, S. 2006. Complexity in landscape ecology. Springer, p 217.
Hagerhall, C.M.; Purcell, T. & Taylor, R. 2004. Fractal dimension of landscape silhouette outlines as a predictor of landscape preference. Journal of Environmental Psychology 24, 247–255.
Harris, G. 2007. Seeking Sustainability in an Age of Complexity. Cambridge University Press.
Hastings, H.M. & Sugihara, G. 1993. Fractals. A user’s guide for the natural sciences. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hastings, A.; Hom, C.; Ellner, S.; Turchin, P. & Godfray, H.C.J. 1993. Chaos in ecology: is mother nature a strange attractor? Annual Revie of Ecological Systems 24, 1–33.
Hauhs, M. & Lange, H. 2008. Classification of runoff in headwater catchments: a physical problem? Geography Compass 2, 235–254.
Heck, J.K. & Wetstone, G. 1977. Habitat complexity and invertebrate species richness and abundance in tropical seagrass meadows. Journal of Biogeography 4, 135–142.
Hooper, D.; Chapin I.F.; Ewel, J.; Hector, A.; Inchausti, P.; Lavorel, S.; Lawton, J.; Lodge, D.; Loreau, M. & Naeem, S. 2005. Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge. Ecological Monographs 75, 3–35.
Ings, T.; Montoya, J.; Bascompte, J.; Blüthgen, N.; Brown, L.; Dormann, C.; Edwards, F.; Figueroa, D.; Jacob, U.; Jones, J.I.; Lauridsen, R.; Ledger, M.; Lewis, H.; Olesen, J.; Veen, F.J.F.; Warren, P. & Woodward, G. 2009. Ecological networks – beyond food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology 78, 253–269.
Jorgensen, S. & Müller, F. (Eds.). 2000. Handbook of Ecosystem Theories and Management. Lewis Publishers, Washington, DC, p. 584.
Kaspar, F. & Schuster, H.G. 1987. Easily calculable measure for the complexity of spatiotemporal patterns. Physical Review A 36, 842–848.
Kay, J. 1991. A non-equilibrium thermodynamic framework for discussing ecosystem integrity. Environmental Management 15, 483–495.
Koestler, A. 1967. The Ghost in the Machine. London, Hutchinson.
Kolmogorov, A. 1965. Three approaches for defining the concept of information quantity. Problems of Information Transmission 1, 3–8.
Krummel, J.; Gardner, R.; Sugihara, G.; O’neill, R. & Coleman, P. 1987. Landscape patterns in a disturbed environment. Oikos, 321–324.
Kutsch, W.; Steinborn, W.; Herbst, M.; Baumann, R.; Barkmann, J. & Kappen, L. 2001. Environmental Indication: a field test of an ecosystem approach to quantify biological self-organization. Ecosystems 4, 49–66.
Langton, C. 1992. Life at the edge of chaos. Artificial Life II 10, 41–91.
Lewin, R. 1992. Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos. MacMillan. New York.
Levin, S. 1998. Ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems. Ecosystems 1, 431–436.
Levin, S. 1999. Fragile Dominion. Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, p. 250.
Liu, J.; Dietz, T.; Carpenter, S.R.; Alberti, M.; Folke, C.; Moran, E.; Pell, A.N.; Deadman, P.; Kratz, T. & Lubchenco, J. 2007. Complexity of coupled human and natural systems. Science 317, 1513.
Lloyd, S. 2001. Measures of complexity: a non-exhaustive list. IEEE Control Systems 21, 7–8.
Loreau, M.; Naeem, S.; Inchausti, P.; Bengtsson, J.; Grime, J.; Hector, A.; Hooper, D.; Huston, M.; Raffaelli, D. & Schmid, B. 2001. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: current knowledge and future challenges. Science 294, 804.
MacArthur, R.H. & MacArthur, J.W. 1961. On bird species diversity. Ecology 42, 594–598.
Mandelbrot, B.B. 1983. The Fractal Geometry of Nature. W.H. Freeman and Company, New York.
Manson, S.M. 2001. Simplifying complexity: a review of complexity theory. Geoforum 32: 405–414.
Marwan, N.; Carmen Romano, M.; Thiel, M. & Kurths, J. 2007. Recurrence plots for the analysis of complex systems. Physics Reports 438, 237–329.
Maturana, H.R. & Varela, F.J. 1980. Autopoiesis and cognition. The realization of the living. D. Reidel Publishing Company. Dordrecht, Holland.
May, R.M. 1973. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton University Press, New York.
May, R.M. 1976. Simple mathematical models with very complicated dynamics. Nature 26: 459–467.
May, R.M. 1988. How many species are there on Earth? Science 241: 1441– 1449.
McCann, K. 2000. The diversity-stability debate. Nature 405, 228–233.
McCulloch W.S. & Pitts, W. 1943. A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity. Bull. Math. Biophysics. 5: 115-137.
Meloche, F. 2005. Caractérisation de l’auto-organisation et de la complexité des écosystèmes. Université de Montréal, Montreal.
Meyer, J.A. 1988. Complexity in ecological systems. In: Peliti, L., Vulpiani, A. (Eds.), Measures of Complexity. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 139–145.
Myers, N.; Mittermeier, R.A.; Mittermeier, C.G.; Da Fonseca, G.A.B. & Kent, J. 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403: 853–858.
Montoya, J. & Solé, R. 2002. Small world patterns in food webs. Journal of Theoretical Biology 214, 405–412.
Moser, D.; Zechmeister, H.G.; Plutzar, C.; Sauberer, N.; Wrbka, T. & Grabherr, G. 2002. Landscapes patch shape complexity as an effective measure for plant species richness in rural landscapes. Landscape Ecology 17, 657–669. Müller, F. 2005. Indicating ecosystem and landscape organization. Ecological Indicators 5, 280–294.
Müller, F. & Leupelt, M. (Eds.) 1998. Eco Targets, Goal Functions and Orientors. Springer, Berlin.
Müller, F.; Hoffmann-Kroll, R. & Wiggering, H. 2000. Indicating ecosystem integrity– theoretical concepts and environmental requirements. Ecological Modelling 130, 13–23.
Nicolis, G. & Prigogine, I. 1977. Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations. Wiley, New York.
O’Neill, R.V.; DeAngelis, D.L.; Waide, J.B. & Allen, T.F.H. 1986. A hierarchical concept of ecosystems. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
O’Neill, R.V.; Krummel, J.R.; Gardner, R.; Sugihara, G.; Jackson, B.; DeAngelis, D.L.; Milne, B.T.; Turner, M.; Zygmunt, B.; Christensen, S.W.; Dale, V.H. & Graham, R.L. 1988. Indices of landscape pattern. Landscape Ecology 1, 153–162.
Odum, E. 1968. Energy flow in ecosystems: a historical review. Integrative and Comparative Biology 8, 11.
Pachepsky, Y.; Guber, A.; Jacques, D.; Jiri Simunek, b.; Genuchten, M.T.V.; Nicholson, T. & Cady, R. 2006. Information content and complexity of simulated soil water fluxes. Geoderma 134, 253–266.
Parrott, L. 2002. Complexity and the limits of ecological engineering. Transactions of the ASAE 45, 1697–1702.
Parrott, L. 2005. Quantifying the complexity of simulated spatiotemporal population dynamics. Ecological Complexity 2, 175–184.
Parrott, L. & Kok, R. 2006. Use of an object-based model to represent complex features of ecosystems. In: Minai, A., Bar-Yam, Y. (Eds.), Unifying Themes in Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, pp. 169–179.
Parrott, L.; Proulx, R. & Thibert-Plante, X. 2008. Three-dimensional metrics for the analysis of spatiotemporal data in ecology. Ecological Informatics 3, 343–353.
Parrott, l. 2010. Measuring ecological complexity. Ecological Indicators 10, 1069–1076
Phelan, S.E. 1999. A note on the correspondence between complexity and system theory. Systemic Practice and Action Research 12: 237–246.
Proulx, R. & Parrott, L. 2008. Measures of structural complexity in digital images for monitoring the ecological signature of an old-growth forest ecosystem. Ecological Indicators 8, 270–284.
Proulx, R. & Parrott, L. 2009. Structural complexity in digital images as an ecological indicator for monitoring forest dynamics across scale, space and time. Ecological Indicators 9, 1248–1256.
Proulx, R.; Cote, P. & Parrott, L. 2008. Use of recurrence analysis to measure the dynamical stability of amulti-species community model. The European Physical Journal-Special Topics 164, 117–126.
Roth, R.R. 1976. Spatial heterogeneity and bird species diversity. Ecology 57, 773–782.
Seeley, D.A. 2000. Network evolution and the emergence of structure. In: Bossomaier, T.R.J. & Green, D.G (Eds.), Complex systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 51–89.
Stonier, T. 1990. Information and the internal structure of the universe. An exploration into information physics. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Stonier, T. 1996. Information as a basic property of the universe. BioSystems 38: 135–140.
Solé, R.V. & Bascompte, J., 2006. Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Tangley, L. 1998. How many species exist? Natl. Wildlife 37: 32–33.
Von Bertalanffy, L. 1968. General Systems Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. New York, Braziller.
Von Neumann, J. 1966. The Unknown and Unknownable. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, MA.
Wackerbauer, R.; Witt, A.; Atmanspacher, H.; Kurths, J. & Scheingraber, H. 1994. A comparative classification of complexity measures. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 4, 133–173.
Watts, D. & Strogatz, S. 1998. Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks. Nature, 393.
Whitehead, A.N. 1925. Sciense and the Modern World. Macmillan, New York.
Wiener, N. 1961. Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Wiens, J. & Milne, B. 1989. Scaling of ‘landscapes’ in landscape ecology, or, landscape ecology from a beetle’s perspective. Landscape Ecology 3, 87–96.
Williams, R.J.; Berlow, E.; Dunne, J.A.; Barabasi, A. & Martinez, N. 2002. Two degrees of separation in complex food webs. PNAS 99, 12913–12916.
Wilson, E.O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. London, Penguin.
Wolpert, D.H. & Macready, W. 2007. Using self-dissimilarity to quantify complexity. Complexity 12, 77–85.
Wu, J. & Marceau, D. 2002. Instroduction. Modeling complex ecological systems: an introduction. Ecological Modelling 153: 1–6.
Ziff, R. 1986. Test of scaling exponents for percolation-cluster perimeters. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56: 545–548.