The main concepts governing the supply of
biological resources and the maintenance of biodiversity
are:-
- the niches,
which define the space and food allocated to different species
bynatural selection;
- the
ecosystems, which are communities of species linked by bonds of
food and shelter;
• ecosystems have a structure, defined as groups of
particular species and theirspatial distribution;
• ecosystems have a dynamics, defined as;
-changes in
the sizes of populations;
-flows of
nutrients and energy through food chains,
-renewal
cycles of bacteria, which release carbon and nutrients by
decomposition.
Wise use of natural resources requires
information about their origins, amounts and stability.
The balance between production and utilisation of
natural resources may be considered in relation to the physical
stocks and flows of the planetary economy. This is defined by
changes in physical resources which originated when the solar
system and the Earth were created. These are now expressed in the
Earth's structural dynamics ( movements of continents, volcanic
effects of lunar and solar cycles on the land and oceans. Solar
flows result in the balance between heat energy reaching the Earth
and its reflection back into space. The interactions between the
planetary and solar forces produce long term and short term changes
in ocean currents, tides and the weather, which in turn govern
rates of erosion of land and sedimentation in the seas.
However, it is necessary to take into account the
wider cosmic picture of the origins of the planetary system in the
sense that life on Earth has physical continuity with the origins
of the universe.