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"Survival of the fittest" is a tautology, because those that are "fit" are the ones that survive, but to survive, a species must be "fit". Modern evolutionary theory avoids the problem by defining fitness as reproductive success, but the complexity of life that we see today could not have evolved based on selection that favours only reproductive ability. There is nothing inherent in reproductive success alone that could result in higher forms of life. Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective presents a non-circular definition of fitness and a thermodynamic definition of evolution. Fitness means maximization of power output, necessary to survive in a competitive world. Evolution is the "storage of entropy". "Entropy storage" means that solar energy, instead of dissipating as heat in the Earth, is stored in the structure of living organisms and ecosystems. Part one explains this in terms comprehensible to a scientific audience beyond biophysicists and ecosystem modellers. Part two applies thermodynamic theory in non-esoteric language to sustainability of agriculture, and to conservation of endangered species. While natural systems are stabilized by feedback, agricultural systems remain in a mode of perpetual growth, pressured by balance of trade and by a swelling population. The constraints imposed by thermodynamic laws are being increasingly felt as economic expansion destabilizes resource systems on which expansion depends.
Preface: The Thermodynamic Theater and an Evolutionary Play.
Part 1: Theory (To Understand Economics, Follow the Money. To Understand Ecosystems, Follow the Energy.)
1. Two Views of Ecology
2. What Can We Learn from Studying Ecosystems that We Can't Learn from Studying Species?
3. A Thermodynamic Definition of Ecosystems
4. Thermodynamic Characteristics of Ecosystems
5. Ecosystem Control: A Top-Down View
6. Ecosystem Control: A Bottom-Up View
7. Ecosystem Stability
8. Case Studies of Ecosystem Control and Stability
9. Entropy and Maximum Power
10. A Thermodynamic View of Succession
11. Panarchy
12. A Thermodynamic View of Evolution
13. Why Is Species Diversity Higher in the Tropics?
14. The Rest of the Story
15. Objections to the Ecosystem Concept
Part 2: Applied (Agricultural Problems are Systems Problems)
16. Maximum Power vs. Maximum Efficiency
17. Energetic Costs and Benefits of Nature's Services
18. Feedback and Stability in Coffee Production Systems
19. Energetic Costs and Benefits of Domestication
20. Feedback and Stability in Economic Food Systems
21. Natural Capital: A Case Study
22. Agroforestry: Capturing Entropy
23. What has Cybernetic Theory Taught us about Agricultural Sustainability?
Conclusion
24. What Have We Learned from a Thermodynamic Approach to Evolution?
Appendices
1. Ecosystem Boundaries
2. Gaia
3. Thermodynamic Niches
4. The Keystone Concept
5. The Maximum Power Principle
6. Problems of Industrial Agriculture
7. Calculations for Table 17.2
8. Thermodynamic Principles in Ecosystem Studies
9. How to Study an Ecosystem when you are Standing in the Middle of It
References
During the 1940s and early 50s, Carl F. Jordan spent boyhood summers at his uncle’s hunting and fishing lodge in northern Maine. He enjoyed the wilderness there, especially canoe trips on the Allagash and Penobscot rivers, and deplored the cutting of the spruce-fir forests by the pulp and paper companies. In 1953, he enrolled at the University of Michigan and majored in forestry, because he believed that it could help him conserve the forests, but in those days, forestry was all about “getting out the cut”.
After he acquired his PhD in plant ecology from Rutgers Univ. in 1966, he joined H.T. Odum in an Atomic Energy Commission project in Puerto Rico, looking at the dynamics of radioactive isotopes in the rain forest following the worldwide atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. In 1969, Carl moved to Argonne National Laboratory where he continued studies of radioactive pollution from nuclear power plants. In 1974, he had the opportunity to lead an ecology project for the University of Georgia to determine energy flow and nutrient cycling in the Amazon Region of Venezuela. In 1980, Carl returned to the School of Ecology in Athens Georgia while continuing tropical research in Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Thailand.
In 1993, Carl acquired a farm near Athens Georgia that had once been part of a pre-Civil War cotton plantation and began research on more sustainable ways of farming. He originated the first University course in Georgia on organic farming and opened the farm to tours and classes interested in sustainable agriculture. Carl retired as Professor Emeritus in 2009, took his new freedom to begin research for Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective, and recently to develop a forum where the controversies raised in that book could be discussed.
