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 | books | laws
Place and process are both 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
Features of the earth forming our human household.
Analysis by analogy
The world is our home?
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:
Space and time:
Watershed concept
Human movement across the continents began as long as 170,000 years ago with a dispersal about Africa and three subsequent passages out of Africa 70 to 60 thousand and also 50 to 40 thousand years ago.
Macro
Meso
Micro
For proteins to function properly they must fold in precise ways.
How a molecule and macro-molecular protein fold determines their functionality; proteins make glucose .
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.
Sulfur cycle is one of several essential trace elements for life
Niche
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
Comparative productivity
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.
Mary Austin
Gregory
Bateson
Rachel Carson
Alfred Crosby
Charles Darwin
Anne and Paul Ehrlich
Howard
Gardner
Garrett Hardin
Aldo Leopold
Ian McHarg
G. Tyler Miller
Sim Van der Ryn
Vaclav Smil
Joseph Siry
Sandra
Steingraber
Lewis Thomas
Terry
Tempest Williams
Edward O. Wilson
Visual
Learning
Biophysical reality
Basic science
What is the predominant pattern you see?
Do
you see the Chess board?
Chess
board
Concepts discussed and ecological solutions related to essay
writing .