By: Ava H.
Photo from: OERu Courses
In order to combat climate change, effective environmental policies must come into play. However, this endeavor sounds much easier said than done, because one universal policy does not fit each ecosystem’s needs equally, as each has different environmental issues needing to be addressed. Therefore, a grounded understanding of how ecosystems function and how humans impact an ecosystem are fundamental concepts essential to bringing about sustainable changes to the environment. This is where earth system science comes into play. Earth system models (ESMs) observe various environmental interactions, from the atmosphere to the ocean, in order to estimate the state of that climate. Along with creating effective policies, the usage of earth system models are quite applicable to recent climate catastrophes, as they identify how human interactions within ecosystems impact the climate.
System biology examines interactions between biological components within the biosphere, such as molecules, cells, organs, and organisms. It is because of its holistic approach to analyzing complex environmental systems that there have been significant developments in environmental sustainability, as ecological behavior can be managed and predicted to ensure longevity for human benefits. By identifying multiple connections, system biology is able to identify and predict numerous environmental outcomes from human practices, which will become increasingly crucial as climate change worsens. Because of environment analysis utilized in earth system models and the hypoxic system, these systems are able to take apart the nuances of an ecosystem and provide in-depth analytical connections of humans and ecosystems, which will help humankind better prepare for the worst of what will come from the climate crisis. Systems biology not only provides needed insight into scientific fields, but also helps policymakers understand the urgency of climate change.
Earth system models prove to be more detailed, through incorporating additional processes. Photo from: Science Magazine
Although climate models may demonstrate a brief overview of the interconnectivity of an ecosystem, an earth system model implements additional insights to the same diagram of an ecosystem. By displaying the multiple effects from human footprints and integrating atmospheric components, earth system models combine chemistry-environment interactions to create a full picture of the science involved in different ecosystems. Earth system models move beyond the typical standpoint to bring forth societally relevant quantities such as habitat loss, wildfire destruction, crop yield, water availability, and more. Earth system models are able to provide such data on impacts through collaboration with vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation (VIA) models. Although effective communication between the models can be limited due to different disciplinary expertise, earth system models can broaden their predictions on environmental outcomes to include the ecological focal points of VIA models. In a scientific world where scientists originally only considered the physical components of the environment, the various climate incorporations within earth system models provide a call to action to scientists to convert to broader thinking in order to advance human knowledge on global change. Scientists must further integrate biological components when analyzing environmental problems so the gap between observations and theory can be diminished, as the increasing environmental threats will require quick connectivity thinking, so these climate catastrophes can be limited as much as possible. Earth system models provide an opportunity for scientists to advance climate science into becoming more interconnected to all of the various environmental interactions.
The key components to any interdisciplinary environmental system is the identification of the structures and functions within ecosystems. Structures are composed of abiotic and biotic factors such as population density and the climate. Structures can be measurable at different points of time, given that repeated samples were taken due to changes. The purpose of functions is to define how processes are affected as structures change. The four broad categories of ecosystem functions consist of regulation, habitat, production, and information. Ecosystems can be viewed to have various purposes, from pollination to ecotourism, which can determine our ecological, socio-cultural, and economic values on a specific ecosystem. Following this determination, it is crucial for humankind to integrate all values sustainably. Ecological functions tend to overlap, which can actually provide opportunities for them to be combined to achieve a thriving ecosystem. By accessing both structure and function within ecosystems, biological systems can be composed to analyze how exactly these ecosystems work, and create meaningful diagrams to demonstrate these integral findings for not just fellow ecologists, but for a broad range of careers, from policymakers to economists. In order to create beneficial systematic change, scientists must utilize these systems to help break down the complicated relations between humans and ecosystems to the public, as policies must take into account the various environmental outcomes of human actions.
The main structural components of an ecosystem. Photo from: Slideshare
In order to sustain our environment, humankind must not overspend in the photosynthesis budget. However, this conservation effort becomes an increasingly difficult problem to prevent due to tremendous human population growth which creates major climate destruction. Therefore, it is crucial for humans to understand how energy moves throughout the four interacting environmental spheres. Human activities are negatively disrupting many energy cycles, which leads to detrimental effects not only for humans, but to animals and ecosystems as well. For example, with our alterations of the phosphorus cycle, environments can become enriched with nutrients, undergoing a process known as eutrophication. While this may sound beneficiary at first glance, this process triggers algae blooms in marine habitats. Since algae die quickly, oxygen is removed from the water when aerobic bacteria decomposes them, resulting in massive dead zones within marine life. This harmful oxygen depletion, known as hypoxia, will continue to increase due to failure to restrict detrimental human actions such as dumping harmful fertilizers and burning fossil fuels. Through insightful hypoxic systems, scientists are able to identify human impacts on marine ecosystems, since data proves that hypoxia does in fact negatively affect ecosystem energy flow. Without these insightful scientific systems, connections could not be easily made between human action and ecosystems. An environmental consequence such as deforestation, is much more prevalent in humans’ knowledge on climate issues, since it occurs in terrestrial ecosystems, which is more accessible to humans since our habitat is on land. However, deeper analysis is required in marine ecosystems since it is not the natural habitat to humans and is not as accessible and attainable to understand some of its environmental consequences.
Due to the importance of earth system models in the effort against climate change, environmental systems must be increasingly integrated into elementary school education. If students are exposed to the multifunctionality of nature from a young age, they will experience the exciting inspiration to help the environment, as they will find true appreciation of nature and strive to preserve it. This is one situation where climate models might be more useful than detailed earth system models, at least initially. Younger students can easily become overwhelmed by new material, unable to grasp the big picture as they dwell on the seemingly endless details. However, by introducing them to climate models, students can grasp a full understanding of system biology before moving into the details within earth system models. Looking back from my elementary school days, I specifically remember learning about the four steps of the water cycle: condensation, precipitation, collection, and evaporation. However, it was not until middle school and high school when I learned about the various factors within the water cycle, including evapotranspiration, river discharge, permafrost, infiltration, and more. Since I already had a solid knowledge on the basis of the water cycle, I was able to understand the complexities within the water cycle fairly easily, as opposed to only learning the complex water cycle in the first place. Students are not thrown into solving calculus problems at a young age; it is with a gradual step-by-step learning process that students are able to learn the basis of math throughout their elementary and high school career that they are then able to transition into higher level math. This concept of learning applies to earth system models as well, as students must first be exposed to climate models, and later earth system models, in order to grasp a full understanding of the concept of system biology. If students can understand the climate at a relatively young age, then they already have the tools in their toolbox to help combat the climate crisis. Environmental education provides students to accumulate the true passion for the environment, which will cause them to address the urgency of climate change.
The current state of the climate suggests the growing need for quality earth system models. Already in the past year, there have been disastrous climate catastrophes such as the Amazon wildfires and worsening hurricanes. Such disasters will seem minute in the future, as catastrophes will continue to intensify to larger unimaginable scales that will cause many parts of the earth to become uninhabitable. As a result, the ongoing pressure of climate change will provoke scientists to contribute to environmental research, since much of their initial work will be affected by climate change anyways. Humankind needs to understand how the interconnectivity of these climate catastrophes, and there is no better way than to further improve earth system models.
Discussion Questions:
Since earth system models are an interactive method to help others understand the complexities of ecosystems, how can we integrate these diagrams into science education? What are strategies that can help keep young students engaged and realize the importance of earth system models?
Ecologists need to understand earth system models in order to further study the connections between humans and the natural world. However, earth system models are an integral component to several other careers. How can careers such as sociologists, economists, and lawyers use the earth system models to their advantage when further enhancing the climate agenda?
How can different institutions such as museums help spread awareness and educate the public on the real world applications of earth system models?