ABSTRACT
Odum described the development of ecosystems from the initial stage to the mature stage as a result of continuous use of the self-design ability (Odum, 1969, 1971). See the significant differences between the two types of systems listed in Table 4.1 and notice that the major differences are on the level of information. The content of information increases in the course of an ecological development, because an ecosystem encompasses an integration of all the modifications that is imposed on the environment. Thus, it is on the background of genetic information that systems develop which allow interaction of information with the environment. Herein lies the importance in the feedback from the organism to the environment, which means that an organism can only evolve in an evolving environment. The differences
between the two stages include entropy and exergy (work energy). The latter concept has been discussed in Chapter 3 and entropy has previously be defined as the extensive variable for the energy form heat (see Table 3.2).
