ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 and 6 pointed out that an ecosystem is influenced by matter and energy exchanges with the surrounding environment, that is, transboundary fluxes that link the ecosystem to its neighboring systems. An ecosystem is also affected by the relationships between its abiotic and biotic components, which can be represented as flows of energy, matter, and information. For this reason, transport phenomena represent fundamental ecological processes underlying the functioning of any kind of ecosystem. In this chapter, the physical processes that determine the transport of mass found in fluids toward, from, or within ecosystems are described; the transport of energy and the role of energetic factors in physical processes will be illustrated in Chapter 8.
