EESA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Complex Network, Hydrosphere, Geosphere
11 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Complex networks of inter-linked systems, including relationships among living species and the interactions of them with the non-living. Cycles: flow of chemicals that move substances within the system, facilitate environmental processes, regulate climate, and support life. We depend on these systems and cycles for survival. System: a network of relationships that interact through the exchange of energy, matter, or information. Systems that receive inputs of energy and matter and produce outputs of both are called open systems. Systems that receive inputs and produce outputs of energy, but not matter, are closed systems. In a closed system, matter cycles but does not leave or enter the system. In nature no system is truly, perfectly closed. Feedback loop: a system"s output can be input to that same system: negative: results from a system moving in one direction acts as input that moves the system in the other direction. Input and output neutralize one another"s effects, stabilizing the system.
