Curiosity Navigating the site:
Inquiry
Inquiry, to query, ask, question and thus to investigate in detail.
Ecology is a wide-ranging & synthetic inquiry as to how the world functions who we are and how we all got here; what are we doing and how does that affect the function of the life of the planet.
The inquiry can be divided into ten related, sequential, and systematically crucial parts.
Form | function | energy | decision trees | many concurrent scales | nutrient flow | functionality | sources | performance | patterns | laws
Place and process are all partners in the game of life.
For the human household –the earth has rules:
Topographical rules: [laws of place]
nourish the land or perish
changes in altitude are like changes in latitude
water inheres in the land, together they are inseparable
Rules of ecology: [laws of process]
You can never do merely one thing
Everything has to go somewhere
Our impact is related to our affluence times our numbers
Laws of Thermodynamics: [rules of the game]
You can't win
You are bound to lose
You can't get out of the game
Earth ethics
Earth
human household
stewardship
caretaker values
Features of the earth forming our human household.
The world is our home?
Water
Energy Air
Land Water, energy, air, and land are the four components of our home that are an acronym–WEAL– that stands for the functional contributions found in any place we investigate.
Functional integrity:
drives the water cycle. water enables vegetation growth animals humans A never-ending circuit of renewal and return.
Watershed concept
Scale levels 
terms nano-scale macro-scale
How a molecule and macro-molecular protein fold determines their functionality.
Note the water molecule released by the amino acids forming a peptide.
Performance
A molecule of glucose, life's fuel.
Nutrient Nitrogen Sulfur 
cycles 
air abundant but unavailable trace amounts shape proteins
Sufficient energy for nutrient flow through biological systems to sustain functional integrity.
Biome a natural area on earth of common living communities location of planetary plant and animal associations percentage of the surface area of each association
ecology, defined | ecological integrity | ecosystems | ecological design | weal | index | thought
What images are in the patterns we observe?
real -- imposed on our sensory receptors by stimuli from our surroundings?
ideal -- imposed by apprehension, comprehension
more on the artificiality of real versus ideal.
What is the predominant pattern you see?
Do you see the Chess board?
Chess board
Concepts discussed and ecological solutions related to essay writing.
