ARTIFICIAL ECOSYSTEM: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, FACTORS, EXAMPLES - ENVIRONMENT - 2026

An artificial ecosystem is one whose biotic components have been determined by humans for specific purposes, such as agricultural production. They require to be maintained under controlled environmental conditions.

The term ecosystem, or ecological system, refers to a natural, semi-natural, or artificial unit that includes all living beings, or biotic factors, in a given area, which interact with the physical and chemical components of its environment, or abiotic factors.

Source: pixabay.com

Ecosystems are characterized by having a defined variety of biotic factors, or biodiversity, and by their own patterns of energy and nutrient flow within and between their biotic and abiotic factors. They can be classified as natural, semi-natural and artificial.

Unlike artificial ones, natural ecosystems are those that have not been perceptibly altered by humans. Semi-natural ecosystems are those that retain a significant part of their original biodiversity, despite having been significantly altered by humans.

characteristics

Artificial ecosystems have a wide variety of characteristics, which vary according to the purpose for which they were designed. In general, they share the following:

- They harbor a lower biodiversity than that of natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Its biotic component is strongly dominated by alien species, or exotics, introduced by humans. They present simplified food chains. Genetic diversity is very low, even in introduced species.

- From the point of view of human needs, they are more productive, or easier to use, than natural ecosystems. For this reason, they have allowed an enormous growth of the world human population.

- They are vulnerable to degradation and to be attacked by pests, with loss of usefulness for humans, due to the absence of biodiversity and the self-regulatory mechanisms characteristic of natural ecosystems. The recycling of nutrients is very limited.

- They depend on human intervention for their persistence. When abandoned, they tend, in a process called ecological succession, to progressively return to the condition of natural ecosystems.

Depending on the degree of human intervention, and the available colonizing species, this last process allows to recover part of the original complexity and biodiversity.

Biotic factors

In artificial ecosystems, plants and animals consist primarily of those species that humans wish to be present. The original species from the area are removed in order to create space for the desired species, or to ensure that the latter benefit monopolistically from available abiotic factors.

In artificial ecosystems, native or introduced species that prey on the desired species, or that compete with them for abiotic factors, are considered pests, with the objective of their elimination or, at least, their systematic control.

In artificial ecosystems, humans tolerate the presence of those native or introduced species that do not adversely affect the desired species. In the case of certain native or introduced species that benefit the desired species, for example by acting as pest biocontrollers, their presence is sometimes promoted.

Humans are the most determining biotic factor of artificial ecosystems, being responsible for their creation and maintenance, and for the trajectory they follow. For example, an artificial ecosystem, such as a field of crops, can be converted by humans into another type of artificial ecosystem, such as an urban park.

Abiotic factors

The abiotic factors, such as climate and soils, of extensive artificial ecosystems are typically the same as those of the natural ecosystems that preceded them in the area they occupy.

Among the abiotic factors of entirely human origin are fertilizers, pesticides, chemical pollutants, heat generated by the consumption of electricity and fossil fuels, noise, plastic garbage, light pollution, and radioactive waste. Examples of the latter are in the Chernobyl and Fukushima catastrophes.

A rare type of artificial ecosystem is constituted by closed ecological systems, such as space capsules, which are ecosystems in which material exchange with the outside is not allowed. These ecosystems are generally small in size and are for experimental purposes.

In closed ecological systems, abiotic factors are determined by the experimenter. If the objective is to maintain human or animal life, waste, such as carbon dioxide, or feces and urine, are abiotic factors that must, with the participation of an autotrophic organism, be converted into oxygen, water and food.

Types and real examples

Artificial ecosystems can be classified in many ways. The most common classification divides them into terrestrial and aquatic. However, it is also possible to divide them into urban, suburban and extra-urban, or open and closed.

Of course, it is also possible to combine these classifications to achieve precise characterizations. Thus, for example, there would be an open urban terrestrial artificial ecosystem, or a closed aquatic extra-urban artificial ecosystem.

Artificial terrestrial ecosystems

They are very common because humans are terrestrial organisms. The largest area is occupied by what is known as agroecosystems, among which are agricultural and livestock farms.

The importance of agroecosystems is so great that within ecology there is a sub-discipline called agroecology, which studies the relationships of cultivated plants and domestic animals with the inanimate environment.

Public and private parks and gardens are also important. With their need for constant care, such as the removal of so-called weeds, parks and gardens demonstrate the inability of self-regulation and self-preservation typical of artificial ecosystems.

Cities are also artificial ecosystems, in explosive expansion, often at the expense of agroecosystems.

Other examples of artificial terrestrial ecosystems are forest plantations for the production of wood and pulp for paper, pig and poultry farms, greenhouses for the production of vegetables, legumes and flowers, zoos, golf courses, and terrariums for the breeding of amphibian and arthropod reptiles.

Artificial aquatic ecosystems

We have all heard of aquariums, rice paddies, irrigation canals, river channels, hydroponics, reservoirs, ponds for aquaculture of fish and shrimp, urban and agricultural ponds, floating cages for aquaculture of marine fish, and oxidation ponds for treaty of sewage. These are examples of artificial aquatic ecosystems.

The alteration by man of the hydrosphere, or part of the planet occupied by oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, to deliberately or accidentally create artificial ecosystems is of great ecological and economic importance.

Our dependence on bodies of water and aquatic plants and animals, as well as their ecological functions, is critical to our survival. The hydrosphere is home to a very rich biodiversity, provides food, oxygenates the atmosphere, and serves for recreation and tourism.

Pollution of the sea and rivers with plastics and an infinity of waste of all kinds is creating authentic artificial ecosystems with greatly reduced biodiversity, such as the great garbage island in the Pacific, which is already three times the size of France. It is estimated that by the year 2050 the planet's oceans will have more plastic than fish.

Closed artificial ecosystems

Planet Earth as a whole can be considered a closed ecological system called the ecosphere. Due to the strong and growing human alteration, which among other things is producing abnormal climate change and will lead to the loss of millions of species, the ecosphere could become a closed artificial ecological system.

Humans have created closed ecological systems for experimentation purposes. In addition to capsules and space laboratories, these include those developed in projects (Biosphere 2, MELiSSA, and the BIOS-1, BIOS-2, BIOS-3) with the objective of experimenting with the support of life in conditions of environmental isolation..

On a very small scale, terrariums and aquariums can be used to create closed artificial ecosystems that house plants and animals. A closed container or bottle containing food or beverages that have been contaminated with microorganisms also represent examples of closed artificial ecosystems.

Relevance to the future of terrestrial life

When they occupy large areas, particularly in tropical regions rich in biological endemisms, artificial ecosystems cause a great loss of biodiversity. This problem is illustrated by the boom in African palm plantations in Indonesia, and in the cultivation of soybeans and livestock in the Amazon.

The growth of the human population requires the permanent expansion of artificial ecosystems at the expense of the natural world.

In part, this expansion could be reduced by improving the productive efficiency of existing artificial ecosystems, and modifying consumption habits (for example, eating less meat products) to reduce the human footprint.

Artificial ecosystems lack the capacity for self-regulation. This would also apply to the ecosphere if it were to become a gigantic artificial ecosystem, with catastrophic consequences, not only in terms of the extinction of millions of species, but for human survival itself.

Sustainable use, that is, the use of natural resources at a rate lower than their capacity for renewal, implies doing everything possible to conserve as many unique natural ecosystems as possible, and to make artificial ecosystems retain some of the characteristics benign conditions of semi-natural ecosystems.

References

1. Chapin, FS III, Matson, PA, Vitousek, PM Principles of terrestrial ecosystem ecology. Springer, New York.
2. Clifford, C., Heffernan, J. 2018. Artificial aquatic ecosystems. Water, 10, dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10081096.
3. Fulget, N., Poughon, L., Richalet, J., Lasseur, C. 1999. Melissa: global control strategy of the artificial ecosystem by using first principles models of the compartments. Advances in Space Research, 24, 397–405.
4. Jørgensen, SE, ed. 2009. Ecosystem ecology. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
5. Korner, C., Arnone, JA Ill. 1992. Responses to elevated carbon dioxide in artificial tropical ecosystems. Science, 257, 1672-1675.
6. Molles, M. 2013. Ecology: concepts and applications. McGraw-Hill, New York.
7. Nelson, M., Pechurkin, N. S, Allen, JP, Somova, LA, Gitelson, JI 2009. Closed ecological systems, space life support, and biospheres. In: Wang, LK, ed. Handbook of environmental engineering, Volume 10: Environmental Biotechnology. Humana Press, New York.
8. Quilleré, I., Roux, L., Marie, D., Roux, Y., Gosse, F., Morot-Gaudry, JF 1995. An artificial productive ecosystem based on a fish / bacteria / plant association. 2. Performance. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 53, 9–30.
9. Ripple, WJ, Wolf, C., Newsome, TM, Galetti, M., Alamgir, M., Crist, E., Mahmoud, MI, Laurance, WF, and 15,364 scientists from 184 countries. World scientists' warning to humanity: a second notice. BioScience, 67, 1026-1028.
10. Rönkkö, M. 2007. An artificial ecosystem: emergent dynamics and lifelike properties. Artificial Life, 13, 159–187.
11. Savard, J.-PL, Clergeau, P., Mennechez, G. 2000. Biodiversity concepts and urban ecosystems. Landscape and Urban Planning, 48, 131–142.
12. Swenson, W., Wilson, DS, Elias, R. 2000. Artificial ecosystem selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 97, 9110–9114.