ABSTRACT
Systems ecology focuses on the properties of ecosystems and tries to reveal them by the use of a systems approach-to see the forest through the trees. It could also be denoted ecosystem theory, because this ecological subdiscipline attempts to develop a theory that can be applied to explain the characteristic processes and reactions of ecosystems similar to how physics is able to explain physical phenomena and make quantitative predictions about how physical systems will react to well-de‰ned perturbations. On the basis of about 25 basic physical laws, we are able to deduce a number of other laws and rules in physics, explain our observations, and calculate at least approximately the inªuence of well-de‰ned factors on physical systems. It makes theoretical physics very useful, because it implies that we can predict what is happening quantitatively by introduction of well-de‰ned changes without making observations or carrying out experiments. Figure 1.1 shows these aspects of theoretical physics.
