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Essential Governing Principles of the Biosphere and Ecological Engineering

Director of the Institute of Soil Research
Department of Forest and Soil Sciences
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU)
Vienna, Austria

Ecological engineering postulates to be different from the traditional technical engineering, but in which sense? In which conceptual framework does it perform? What does "ecological" mean? Is it simply a wish to be different? Or what is behind the ecological approach in engineering?

I will try to answer these questions by looking into the governing principles under which the biosphere performs, without human interference. Therefore, let us see how nature works. There are 6 basic and essential principles of the biosphere, see Fig. 1.

There is no fossil energy involved in any of the natural processes. Moreover, all genes of plants and animals, including humans, have developed exclusively under solar orientation. Even until the Medieval times or even later, this was also true for human societies, which were nearly uniquely based on renewable energy, produced by photosynthesis, through converting solar radiation into chemical energy, called biomass. - This process is reducing entrophy in the global system and therefore the basis of an energetically balanced system, as long as the solar radiation is maintained.

2. Closing material cycles

Nature works by closing material cycles, with very few exceptions, e.g. when materials are deposited for a longer time as terrestrial sediments or at the bottom of the sea, where they are in a more or less inaccessible position for some time. We can therefore distinguish between very long-term cycles and shorter cycles, measuring in human lifetimes and shorter. - This means that e.g. the biomass produced by solar radiation and photosynthesis is decomposed by biological/microbiological processes into water and carbon dioxide, setting free the elements which were used in order to create this biomass, thus delivering again products (water, carbon dioxide and elements which sustain the biomass production system).

3. Use of energy in material cascades

Nature does not waste any energy or material. The decomposition of a leaf or a needle from a tree occurs first through mechanical attacks by insects, afterwards through a sequence of different biota, which all gain energy out of this decomposition process in the sense of a food web. Sometimes, even humans are participating in this food web, especially in cases where biomass serves as food. This use of energy and material in cascades is most important for minimising entropy production and the same is true for

4. Concentration of surplus

This means that nature never dissipates any kind of excessive materials or elements, but concentrates them. If this were not the case, we would have no quartz veins in rock materials or ores, or other forms of element concentration which humans are using for different technical purposes. Even today, the formation of manganese deposits at the bottom of the sea is a sign that nature concentrates surplus, which is also the case in plant and animal physiology. Material which cannot be put into prevailing structures is excreted and/or bound as concentrates, e.g. in cells.

This principle is most important. On the other side, former technical engineering tried to get rid of pollutants by constructing higher chimneys, in order to achieve better dissipation, which was a basically wrong principle of handling these problems.

5. Maximum variety

Nature uses a maximum of biological, chemical, mechanical and other options, in order to be ecologically stable. This can be seen all over in nature, where humans are not interfering, because the variety of plants and animals is the greater, the less humans are interfering. Especially on very extreme sites, an extremely high variety of biological options can be found, thus stabilising biological systems under these conditions.

6. Networking of decentralised systems

Another feature of ecological stability is that nature is working in decentralised systems, which are networking with each other under different forms. This can be seen by mycorrhiza and other cases, where networking in terrestrial and aquatic systems is the basis of ecological stability. The importance hereby is that these systems are decentralised and therefore, different options can be found, according to the prevailing conditions.

After this consideration of essential governing principles of the biosphere, the question is: How close is ecological engineering to these governing principles? These principles could be seen as the framework in which ecological engineering should be undertaken, under the slogan "Let nature do the job", and what nature cannot achieve we will add by technical measures.

Therefore, the essential governing principles of the biosphere can provide some guidance in ecological engineering and I do hope that future progress in this new field of science and technology can be achieved on this basis.