Abstract
“LIVING organisms (biota) and their non-living (abiotic) environment are inseparably interrelated and interact on each other. Any area of nature that includes living organisms and non-living substances interacting to produce an exchange of materials between the living (biotic) and the non-living (abiotic) parts is an ecosystem” (modified after Odum1). The driving force which causes this exchange is the energy incident on the given area. That part of the energy which is fixed by the photo-synthetic biomass is either used by the respiring biomass or is stored in chemical form as standing crop, extracellular produce, humus or peat.
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References
Odum, E. P., Fundamentals of Ecology (Saunders, 1959).
Thomson, W., Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. (1852).
Clausius, R., Poggendorff's Annalen, 130 (1865).
De Groots, S. R., The Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes (North Holland, 1952).
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BELLAMY, D., CLARKE, P. Application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Le Chatelier's Principle to the Developing Ecosystem. Nature 218, 1180 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/2181180a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2181180a0
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