Systems ecology

The combined approaches of systems analysis and the ecology of whole ecosystems when viewed as interdependent and functionally interacting components. The approach is based on an analysis of the network of relationships between organisms and organs, at any level of subdivision, within plant or animal communities. Such relationships need not be expressed as quantitative functions but may be expressed as the presence or absence of flows in a particular direction of material or energy. They may also express alternative pathways of development or direction of change in the organic or inorganic parts of the system.