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1.2 Systems and Models

This document discusses systems thinking and modeling. It explains what systems are, including their components like inputs, outputs, storage and flows. It discusses open, closed and isolated systems. It also discusses modeling and its benefits and limitations for understanding complex systems.

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giada.guzzardi
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91 views34 pages

1.2 Systems and Models

This document discusses systems thinking and modeling. It explains what systems are, including their components like inputs, outputs, storage and flows. It discusses open, closed and isolated systems. It also discusses modeling and its benefits and limitations for understanding complex systems.

Uploaded by

giada.guzzardi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

2 Systems and models

Everything is
linked to
everything else
Significant ideas:

● A systems approach can help in the study of


complex environmental issues.

● The use of systems and models simplifies


interactions but may provide a more holistic
view without reducing issues to single processes.
A systems approach is a way of visualizing a
complex set of interactions which may be
ecological or societal.

SYSTEM: an assemblage of
parts and their relationship
forming a functioning entirety
or whole.

Useful to understanding
and explaining
phenomena´s

By focusing on the interactions instead of the


different parts, we can more clearly see the big
picture of how our world Works.
A bicycle

Bicycle parts piled on the floor.


Is This a system?
These interactions produce the
emergent properties of the system:
● Why the system as a whole is
greater than the sum of its parts.
● The interactions of the parts create
something they could not produce
independently.
● Each part has a specialized
function.
● Similar parts are grouped together.
● ex: two forest stands may contain
the same tree species, but the
spatial arrangement and size
structure of the individual trees will
create different habitats for wildlife
species. In this case, an emergent
property of each stand is the
wildlife habitat.
Types of systems

Environmental systems:
Includes abiotic and biotic components

Societal systems:
▪ Value Systems
▪ Economic Systems
▪ Social Systems
Earth as a System

● The Biosphere
● Atmosphere
● Hydrosphere
● Lithosphere

Click on the image


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)

Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0h5CS-w778
and summarize the Gaia hypothesis in your own words
Scale of Environmental System

• Studying the Blue Ridge Mountain range of Northen Georgia are examples of
local ecosystems

• On a larger scale, we could study the Appalachian Mountains as a larger system


affected by many factors inside and outside Eastern United States

Click on the image to watch Earth as a System

https://www.thinkib.net/ess/page/27165/12-what-is-a-system-the-basics
A system is comprised of storages and flows

● Systems consist of:


○ Inputs: energy or matter enters a system.
○ Outputs: something produced at the end of a
system
○ Storage: areas where energy or matter is
accumulated inside a system
○ Flows: movement of energy or matter within a
system
○ Processes: transfer or transform energy or matter
from storage to storage
○ Feedback mechanisms that maintain stability
and equilibrium
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

All Systems Have Represented By:


STORAGES A box

FLOWS Arrows

INPUTS Arrows in
OUTPUTS Arrows out
Boundaries Lines

PROCESSES Ex: respiration, precipitation,


diffusion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfgE-LAJ8fA&t=9s
The flows provide inputs and outputs of energy and matter

● Energy initially enters ecosystems from the sun as light.


(flows)
● 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.
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.
The flows are processes that may be either transfers (a change
in location) or transformations (a change in chemical nature, a
change in state or a change in energy

Transformations move energy and matter but in the process


of doing so there is a change of state or form.

•Water changes state from solid, to


liquid to gas (matter).
•Incoming light is transformed into
heat as it is re-radiated from the
earth’s surface (energy).
•Energy is converted into matter
during photosynthesis.
•Matter is converted into heat and
light energy during combustion of
matter
Transfers simply move energy or matter from one place
to another without changing it in anyway.

•Matter moves through a system,


water flows in rivers moving across
the land.
•Ocean currents move energy
around the planet, the Gulf Stream
and the North Atlantic Drift take
heat from the equator and move it
pole wards.
•The food web moves matter
through the living organisms in its
links.
Construct a system diagram or a model from a given set of
information

Where would these fit in this carbon cycle system diagram?


Abiotic element
Autotrophs
Primary consumers
Secondary consumers
Tertiary consumers
1.2.S1 Construct a system diagram or a model from a given set
of information

Create a systems diagram, showing the inputs, outputs, storages, flows,


transfers, and transformations within a single leaf of a Pinus sylvestris. (Pine
tree)
An open system exchanges both energy and matter across its
boundary while a closed system exchanges only energy across its
boundary

• Open system: a system in


which both materials and
energy are exchanged
across the boundaries of
the system
• Most common system
• Example: Rainforest,
Ecosystems
An open system exchanges both energy and matter across its
boundary while a closed system exchanges only energy
across its boundary

• 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
Ecosystems are open systems; closed systems only exist
experimentally, although the global geochemical cycles
approximate to closed systems

The major global


cycles are all closed
systems
• the nitrogen cycle,
• the carbon cycle
• the hydrological
cycle.
An open system exchanges both energy and matter across its
boundary while a closed system exchanges only energy across its
boundary

Biosphere 2
Click on the image to watch the video
An isolated system is a hypothetical concept in which neither
energy nor matter is exchanged across the boundary

The Universe
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

The most common in ESS are systems and


simulations.
A model inevitably involves some approximations and therefore
loss of accuracy
A model inevitably involves some approximations and therefore
loss of accuracy

Leaving parts out changes the


functionally of the whole
(emergent properties) Doing so increa
ses errors and
decreases accu
racy
Evaluate the use of models as a tool in a given situation, for
example, climate change predictions

Advantages Disadvantages
● Can predict and simplify complex ● Lack of detail may not be accurate
systems ● Rely on the expertise of those making
it
● Bring out patterns
● Different people may interpret them
● Simplified versions of real life in different ways
● Inputs can be changed and ● Vested interests may hijack them
outputs examined without waiting politically
for real events ● Only as good as the data that goes in
● Results can be shown to others ● Different models may show different
effects with same data
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

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