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117-579: Various groups along the political spectrum hold different views about what they believe constitutes political freedom. Left-wing political philosophy generally couples the notion of freedom with that of positive liberty or the enabling of a group or individual to determine their own life or realize their own potential. In this sense, freedom may include freedom from poverty, starvation, treatable disease, and oppression as well as freedom from force and coercion, from whomever they may issue. According to neoliberal philosopher and economist Friedrich Hayek ,

234-409: A cell wall . Newly dead animals may be covered by an exoskeleton . Fragmentation processes, which break through these protective layers, accelerate the rate of microbial decomposition. Animals fragment detritus as they hunt for food, as does passage through the gut. Freeze-thaw cycles and cycles of wetting and drying also fragment dead material. The chemical alteration of the dead organic matter

351-495: A food chain . Real systems are much more complex than this—organisms will generally feed on more than one form of food, and may feed at more than one trophic level. Carnivores may capture some prey that is part of a plant-based trophic system and others that are part of a detritus-based trophic system (a bird that feeds both on herbivorous grasshoppers and earthworms, which consume detritus). Real systems, with all these complexities, form food webs rather than food chains which present

468-619: A habitat . Ecosystem ecology is the "study of the interactions between organisms and their environment as an integrated system". The size of ecosystems can range up to ten orders of magnitude , from the surface layers of rocks to the surface of the planet. The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study started in 1963 to study the White Mountains in New Hampshire . It was the first successful attempt to study an entire watershed as an ecosystem. The study used stream chemistry as

585-609: A central role over a wide range, for example, in the slow development of soil from bare rock and the faster recovery of a community from disturbance . Disturbance also plays an important role in ecological processes. F. Stuart Chapin and coauthors define disturbance as "a relatively discrete event in time that removes plant biomass". This can range from herbivore outbreaks, treefalls, fires, hurricanes, floods, glacial advances , to volcanic eruptions . Such disturbances can cause large changes in plant, animal and microbe populations, as well as soil organic matter content. Disturbance

702-428: A country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities." Gerald C. MacCallum Jr. spoke of a compromise between positive and negative freedoms, saying that an agent must have full autonomy over themselves. In this view, freedom is a triadic relationship because it is about three things, namely the agent, the constraints they need to be free from and the goal they are aspiring to. Hannah Arendt traces

819-507: A critical role in global nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. Phosphorus enters ecosystems through weathering . As ecosystems age this supply diminishes, making phosphorus-limitation more common in older landscapes (especially in the tropics). Calcium and sulfur are also produced by weathering, but acid deposition is an important source of sulfur in many ecosystems. Although magnesium and manganese are produced by weathering, exchanges between soil organic matter and living cells account for

936-517: A faster recovery. More severe and more frequent disturbance result in longer recovery times. From one year to another, ecosystems experience variation in their biotic and abiotic environments. A drought , a colder than usual winter, and a pest outbreak all are short-term variability in environmental conditions. Animal populations vary from year to year, building up during resource-rich periods and crashing as they overshoot their food supply. Longer-term changes also shape ecosystem processes. For example,

1053-498: A forecasting tool. Sulakshin offered mathematical evidence that stable development (positive dynamics of the vast number of statistic indices) depends on the width of the political spectrum: if it is too narrow or too wide, stagnation or political disasters will result. Sulakshin also showed that in the short run the political spectrum determines the statistic indices dynamic and not vice versa. A number of studies have found that biology can be linked with political orientation. Many of

1170-427: A function-based typology has been proposed to leverage the strengths of these different approaches into a unified system. Human activities are important in almost all ecosystems. Although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Ecosystems provide a variety of goods and services upon which people depend. Ecosystem goods include

1287-698: A general level, for example, tropical forests , temperate grasslands , and arctic tundra . There can be any degree of subcategories among ecosystem types that comprise a biome, e.g., needle-leafed boreal forests or wet tropical forests. Although ecosystems are most commonly categorized by their structure and geography, there are also other ways to categorize and classify ecosystems such as by their level of human impact (see anthropogenic biome ), or by their integration with social processes or technological processes or their novelty (e.g. novel ecosystem ). Each of these taxonomies of ecosystems tends to emphasize different structural or functional properties. None of these

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1404-408: A list of political statements found in newspapers and political tracts and asked subjects to rate their agreement or disagreement with each. Submitting this value questionnaire to the same process of factor analysis used by Ferguson, Eysenck drew out two factors, which he named "Radicalism" (R-factor) and "Tender-Mindedness" (T-factor). Such analysis produces a factor whether or not it corresponds to

1521-672: A means of monitoring ecosystem properties, and developed a detailed biogeochemical model of the ecosystem. Long-term research at the site led to the discovery of acid rain in North America in 1972. Researchers documented the depletion of soil cations (especially calcium) over the next several decades. Ecosystems can be studied through a variety of approaches—theoretical studies, studies monitoring specific ecosystems over long periods of time, those that look at differences between ecosystems to elucidate how they work and direct manipulative experimentation. Studies can be carried out at

1638-528: A more important role in moving nutrients around. This can be especially important as the soil thaws in the spring, creating a pulse of nutrients that become available. Decomposition rates are low under very wet or very dry conditions. Decomposition rates are highest in wet, moist conditions with adequate levels of oxygen. Wet soils tend to become deficient in oxygen (this is especially true in wetlands ), which slows microbial growth. In dry soils, decomposition slows as well, but bacteria continue to grow (albeit at

1755-406: A number of common, non random properties in the topology of their network. The carbon and nutrients in dead organic matter are broken down by a group of processes known as decomposition. This releases nutrients that can then be re-used for plant and microbial production and returns carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (or water) where it can be used for photosynthesis. In the absence of decomposition,

1872-421: A process known as denitrification . Mycorrhizal fungi which are symbiotic with plant roots, use carbohydrates supplied by the plants and in return transfer phosphorus and nitrogen compounds back to the plant roots. This is an important pathway of organic nitrogen transfer from dead organic matter to plants. This mechanism may contribute to more than 70 Tg of annually assimilated plant nitrogen, thereby playing

1989-677: A real-world phenomenon and so caution must be exercised in its interpretation. While Eysenck's R-factor is easily identified as the classical "left–right" dimension, the T-factor (representing a factor drawn at right angles to the R-factor) is less intuitive, as high-scorers favored pacifism , racial equality , religious education and restrictions on abortion , while low-scorers had attitudes more friendly to militarism , harsh punishment , easier divorce laws and companionate marriage. According to social scientist Bojan Todosijevic, radicalism

2106-696: A significant portion of ecosystem fluxes. Potassium is primarily cycled between living cells and soil organic matter. Biodiversity plays an important role in ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem processes are driven by the species in an ecosystem, the nature of the individual species, and the relative abundance of organisms among these species. Ecosystem processes are the net effect of the actions of individual organisms as they interact with their environment. Ecological theory suggests that in order to coexist, species must have some level of limiting similarity —they must be different from one another in some fundamental way, otherwise, one species would competitively exclude

2223-408: A slower rate) even after soils become too dry to support plant growth. Ecosystems are dynamic entities. They are subject to periodic disturbances and are always in the process of recovering from past disturbances. When a perturbation occurs, an ecosystem responds by moving away from its initial state. The tendency of an ecosystem to remain close to its equilibrium state, despite that disturbance,

2340-464: A small effect on ecosystem function. Ecologically distinct species, on the other hand, have a much larger effect. Similarly, dominant species have a large effect on ecosystem function, while rare species tend to have a small effect. Keystone species tend to have an effect on ecosystem function that is disproportionate to their abundance in an ecosystem. An ecosystem engineer is any organism that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys

2457-771: A social context". To such libertarians, positive liberty is contradictory since so-called rights must be traded off against each other, debasing legitimate rights which by definition trump other moral considerations. Any alleged right which calls for a result (e.g. housing, education, medical services and so on) produced by people is in effect a purported right to enslave others. Political philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre theorized freedom in terms of our social interdependence with other people. Economist Milton Friedman argues in his book Capitalism and Freedom that there are two types of freedom, namely political freedom and economic freedom , and that without economic freedom there cannot be political freedom. A study on 123 nations shows that

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2574-611: A split in the left–right axis between social policy and economic policy , with a previously undiscovered dimension of socialism-capitalism (S-factor). While factorially distinct from Eysenck's previous R factor, the S-factor did positively correlate with the R-factor, indicating that a basic left–right or right–left tendency underlies both social values and economic values , although S tapped more into items discussing economic inequality and big business , while R relates more to

2691-468: A variety of approaches—theoretical studies, studies monitoring specific ecosystems over long periods of time, those that look at differences between ecosystems to elucidate how they work and direct manipulative experimentation. Biomes are general classes or categories of ecosystems. However, there is no clear distinction between biomes and ecosystems. Ecosystem classifications are specific kinds of ecological classifications that consider all four elements of

2808-443: A variety of goods and services upon which people depend, and may be part of. Ecosystem goods include the "tangible, material products" of ecosystem processes such as water, food, fuel, construction material, and medicinal plants . Ecosystem services , on the other hand, are generally "improvements in the condition or location of things of value". These include things like the maintenance of hydrological cycles , cleaning air and water,

2925-522: A variety of scales, ranging from whole-ecosystem studies to studying microcosms or mesocosms (simplified representations of ecosystems). American ecologist Stephen R. Carpenter has argued that microcosm experiments can be "irrelevant and diversionary" if they are not carried out in conjunction with field studies done at the ecosystem scale. In such cases, microcosm experiments may fail to accurately predict ecosystem-level dynamics. Biomes are general classes or categories of ecosystems. However, there

3042-462: A vertical axis as a scale of kratos/ akrateia and a horizontal axis as a scale of archy/ anarchy . He places democratic progressivism in the lower left, plutocratic nationalism in the lower right, republican constitutionalism in the upper right, and libertarian individualism in the upper left. The political left is therefore distinguished by its rejection of archy, while the political right is distinguished by its acceptance of archy. For Mitchell, anarchy

3159-611: Is a primary shared characteristic of "people who subscribe to any extreme government or ideology, whether it is right-wing or left-wing". In its 4 January 2003 issue, The Economist discussed a chart, proposed by Ronald Inglehart and supported by the World Values Survey (associated with the University of Michigan ), to plot cultural ideology onto two dimensions. On the y-axis it covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism , abortion , euthanasia and

3276-431: Is a system that environments and their organisms form through their interaction. The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors . External factors such as climate , parent material which forms the soil and topography , control the overall structure of an ecosystem but are not themselves influenced by

3393-458: Is an international synthesis by over 1000 of the world's leading biological scientists that analyzes the state of the Earth's ecosystems and provides summaries and guidelines for decision-makers. The report identified four major categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting services. It concludes that human activity is having a significant and escalating impact on

3510-442: Is consumed by animals while still alive and enters the plant-based trophic system. After plants and animals die, the organic matter contained in them enters the detritus-based trophic system. Ecosystem respiration is the sum of respiration by all living organisms (plants, animals, and decomposers) in the ecosystem. Net ecosystem production is the difference between gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration. In

3627-569: Is followed by succession, a "directional change in ecosystem structure and functioning resulting from biotically driven changes in resource supply." The frequency and severity of disturbance determine the way it affects ecosystem function. A major disturbance like a volcanic eruption or glacial advance and retreat leave behind soils that lack plants, animals or organic matter. Ecosystems that experience such disturbances undergo primary succession . A less severe disturbance like forest fires, hurricanes or cultivation result in secondary succession and

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3744-554: Is governed by three sets of factors—the physical environment (temperature, moisture, and soil properties), the quantity and quality of the dead material available to decomposers, and the nature of the microbial community itself. Temperature controls the rate of microbial respiration; the higher the temperature, the faster the microbial decomposition occurs. Temperature also affects soil moisture, which affects decomposition. Freeze-thaw cycles also affect decomposition—freezing temperatures kill soil microorganisms, which allows leaching to play

3861-405: Is no clear distinction between biomes and ecosystems. Biomes are always defined at a very general level. Ecosystems can be described at levels that range from very general (in which case the names are sometimes the same as those of biomes) to very specific, such as "wet coastal needle-leafed forests". Biomes vary due to global variations in climate . Biomes are often defined by their structure: at

3978-574: Is no such thing, for instance, as freedom to pollute or freedom to deforest given that such activities create negative externalities , which violates other groups' liberty to not be exposed to pollution. The popularity of SUVs , golf and urban sprawl has been used as evidence that some ideas of freedom and ecological conservation can clash. This leads at times to serious confrontations and clashes of values reflected in advertising campaigns, e.g. that of PETA regarding fur . John Dalberg-Acton stated: "The most certain test by which we judge whether

4095-456: Is not the absence of government but the rejection of rank. Thus there can be both anti-government anarchists (Mitchell's "libertarian individualists") and pro-government anarchists (Mitchell's "democratic progressives", who favor the use of government force against social hierarchies such as patriarchy ). Mitchell also distinguishes between left-wing anarchists and right-wing anarchists , whom Mitchell renames "akratists" for their opposition to

4212-437: Is nothing that corresponds to the radical - conservative continuum". Eysenck's political views related to his research: Eysenck was an outspoken opponent of what he perceived as the authoritarian abuses of the left and right, and accordingly he believed that with this T axis he had found the link between Nazism and communism . According to Eysenck, members of both ideologies were tough-minded. Central to Eysenck's thesis

4329-485: Is often known as syncretic politics . This form of politics has been criticized as tending to mischaracterize positions that have a logical location on a two-axis spectrum because they seem randomly brought together on a one-axis left–right spectrum. Some political scientists have noted that a single left–right axis is too simplistic and insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs and include other axes to compensate for this problem. Although

4446-531: Is primarily achieved through bacterial and fungal action. Fungal hyphae produce enzymes that can break through the tough outer structures surrounding dead plant material. They also produce enzymes that break down lignin , which allows them access to both cell contents and the nitrogen in the lignin. Fungi can transfer carbon and nitrogen through their hyphal networks and thus, unlike bacteria, are not dependent solely on locally available resources. Decomposition rates vary among ecosystems. The rate of decomposition

4563-485: Is termed its resistance . The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks is termed its ecological resilience . Resilience thinking also includes humanity as an integral part of the biosphere where we are dependent on ecosystem services for our survival and must build and maintain their natural capacities to withstand shocks and disturbances. Time plays

4680-422: Is the "best" classification. Ecosystem classifications are specific kinds of ecological classifications that consider all four elements of the definition of ecosystems : a biotic component, an abiotic complex, the interactions between and within them, and the physical space they occupy. Different approaches to ecological classifications have been developed in terrestrial, freshwater and marine disciplines, and

4797-567: Is thus an extension of "the freedom to call something into being which did not exist before, which was not given, not even as an object of cognition or imagination, and which therefore, strictly speaking, could not be known". Political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions political compass and political map are used to refer to

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4914-421: Is used when dealing with conflicting information. A study conducted by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and New York University (NYU) had participants sort through a deck of cards. The letter M was four times more likely to be in the deck than the letter W. Participants had to press a button every time an M came up in the deck. Liberals were shown to make fewer errors in mistaking

5031-555: The resource inputs are generally controlled by external processes like climate and parent material, the availability of these resources within the ecosystem is controlled by internal factors like decomposition, root competition or shading. Other factors like disturbance, succession or the types of species present are also internal factors. Primary production is the production of organic matter from inorganic carbon sources. This mainly occurs through photosynthesis . The energy incorporated through this process supports life on earth, while

5148-627: The various legislative bodies of France . As seen from the Speaker 's seat at the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right (traditionally the seat of honor) and the commoners sat on the left, hence the terms right-wing politics and left-wing politics . Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was the Ancien Régime ("old order"). "The Right" thus implied support for aristocratic or royal interests and

5265-407: The "socialist argument" defined "individual liberty" as " 'freedom from' obstacles". He argued that this definition only "confused" and obscured the aim of "securing individual freedom", because it permitted a possible "identification of freedom with power." The subsequent "collective power over circumstances" misappropriated "the physical 'ability to do what I want', the power to satisfy our wishes, or

5382-435: The "tangible, material products" of ecosystem processes such as water, food, fuel, construction material, and medicinal plants . They also include less tangible items like tourism and recreation, and genes from wild plants and animals that can be used to improve domestic species. Ecosystem services , on the other hand, are generally "improvements in the condition or location of things of value". These include things like

5499-706: The Hayek–Friedman hypothesis of the necessity of economic freedom for political freedom holds well. Only in few cases, there was relatively high political freedom without high economic freedom, and even those cases diminished over time. A later study found just one clear counter-example, Belarus after 1991, and its freedom was lost over time. In his article "Why the Market Subverts Democracy", Robin Hahnel takes issue with Friedman's concept of economic freedom, asserting that there will be infringements on

5616-567: The United States and 10 dimensions in the United Kingdom. This conclusion was based on two large datasets and uses a Bayesian approach rather than the traditional factor analysis method. In a 2003 Psychological Bulletin paper, Jeff Greenberg and Eva Jonas posit a model comprising the standard left–right axis and an axis representing ideological rigidity. For Greenberg and Jonas, ideological rigidity has "much in common with

5733-676: The W for the M. This behavioral study supported the notion that liberals are better with dealing with conflicting information. Conservatives have a stronger sympathetic nervous system response to threatening images and are more likely to interpret ambiguous facial expressions as threatening. In general, conservatives are more likely to report larger social networks, more happiness and better self-esteem than liberals. Liberals are more likely to report greater emotional distress, relationship dissatisfaction and experiential hardship and are more open to experience and tolerate uncertainty and disorder better. Genetic factors account for at least some of

5850-481: The absence of disturbance, net ecosystem production is equivalent to the net carbon accumulation in the ecosystem. Energy can also be released from an ecosystem through disturbances such as wildfire or transferred to other ecosystems (e.g., from a forest to a stream to a lake) by erosion . In aquatic systems , the proportion of plant biomass that gets consumed by herbivores is much higher than in terrestrial systems. In trophic systems, photosynthetic organisms are

5967-402: The amount of energy available to the ecosystem. Parent material determines the nature of the soil in an ecosystem, and influences the supply of mineral nutrients. Topography also controls ecosystem processes by affecting things like microclimate , soil development and the movement of water through a system. For example, ecosystems can be quite different if situated in a small depression on

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6084-504: The amount of light available, the amount of leaf area a plant has to capture light (shading by other plants is a major limitation of photosynthesis), the rate at which carbon dioxide can be supplied to the chloroplasts to support photosynthesis, the availability of water, and the availability of suitable temperatures for carrying out photosynthesis. Energy and carbon enter ecosystems through photosynthesis, are incorporated into living tissue, transferred to other organisms that feed on

6201-410: The bottom right, African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries on the bottom left and ex-Communist countries on the top left. This very distinct two-axis model was created by Jerry Pournelle in 1963 for his doctoral dissertation in political science. The Pournelle chart has liberty on one axis, with those on the left seeking freedom from control or protections for social deviance and those on

6318-408: The carbon makes up much of the organic matter in living and dead biomass, soil carbon and fossil fuels . It also drives the carbon cycle , which influences global climate via the greenhouse effect . Through the process of photosynthesis, plants capture energy from light and use it to combine carbon dioxide and water to produce carbohydrates and oxygen . The photosynthesis carried out by all

6435-476: The church, while "The Left" implied support for republicanism , secularism and civil liberties . For almost a century, social scientists have considered the problem of how to best describe political variation. In 1950, Leonard W. Ferguson analyzed political values using ten scales measuring attitudes toward: birth control , capital punishment , censorship , communism , evolution , law , patriotism , theism , treatment of criminals and war . Submitting

6552-432: The combustion of fossil fuels, ammonia gas which evaporates from agricultural fields which have had fertilizers applied to them, and dust. Anthropogenic nitrogen inputs account for about 80% of all nitrogen fluxes in ecosystems. When plant tissues are shed or are eaten, the nitrogen in those tissues becomes available to animals and microbes. Microbial decomposition releases nitrogen compounds from dead organic matter in

6669-418: The concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as "The whole system, ... including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment". Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as "mental isolates". Tansley later defined

6786-483: The conceptual origins of freedom to ancient Greek politics. According to her study, the concept of freedom was historically inseparable from political action. Politics could only be practiced by those who had freed themselves from the necessities of life so that they could participate in the realm of political affairs. According to Arendt, the concept of freedom became associated with the Christian notion of freedom of

6903-403: The dead organic matter would accumulate in an ecosystem, and nutrients and atmospheric carbon dioxide would be depleted. Decomposition processes can be separated into three categories— leaching , fragmentation and chemical alteration of dead material. As water moves through dead organic matter, it dissolves and carries with it the water-soluble components. These are then taken up by organisms in

7020-447: The definition of ecosystems : a biotic component, an abiotic complex, the interactions between and within them, and the physical space they occupy. Biotic factors of the ecosystem are living things; such as plants, animals, and bacteria, while abiotic are non-living components; such as water, soil and atmosphere. Plants allow energy to enter the system through photosynthesis , building up plant tissue. Animals play an important role in

7137-474: The descriptive words at polar opposites may vary, the axes of popular biaxial spectra are usually split between economic issues (on a left–right dimension) and socio-cultural issues (on an authority–liberty dimension). The terms right and left refer to political affiliations originating early in the French Revolutionary era of 1789–1799 and referred originally to the seating arrangements in

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7254-547: The difference in methodology , location and theory , the results attained by Eysenck and Ferguson matched. Simply rotating Eysenck's two factors 45 degrees renders the same factors of religionism and humanitarianism identified by Ferguson in America. Eysenck's dimensions of R and T were found by factor analyses of values in Germany and Sweden , France and Japan . One interesting result Eysenck noted in his 1956 work

7371-655: The ecosystem or to gradual disruption of biotic processes and degradation of abiotic conditions of the ecosystem. Once the original ecosystem has lost its defining features, it is considered "collapsed ". Ecosystem restoration can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals . An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the abiotic pools (or physical environment) with which they interact. The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. "Ecosystem processes" are

7488-528: The ecosystem. Internal factors are controlled, for example, by decomposition , root competition, shading, disturbance, succession, and the types of species present. While the resource inputs are generally controlled by external processes, the availability of these resources within the ecosystem is controlled by internal factors. Therefore, internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are also controlled by them. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—they are subject to periodic disturbances and are always in

7605-675: The experimenter's familiarity with the content under analysis and its dependence on the researcher's particular political outlooks. Multiple raters made frequency counts of sentences containing synonyms for a number of values identified by Rokeach—including freedom and equality—and Rokeach analyzed these results by comparing the relative frequency rankings of all the values for each of the four texts: Later studies using samples of American ideologues and American presidential inaugural addresses attempted to apply this model. In further research, Eysenck refined his methodology to include more questions on economic issues . Doing this, he revealed

7722-410: The extent of the choice of alternatives open to us." Hayek maintained that once any possible "identification of freedom with power is admitted," a "totalitarian state" coalesced where "liberty has been suppressed in the name of liberty." Social anarchists see negative and positive liberty as complementary concepts of freedom. Such a view of rights may require utilitarian trade-offs, such as sacrificing

7839-710: The finding of religionism and humanitarianism had a number of replications by Ferguson and others. Shortly afterward, Hans Eysenck began researching political attitudes in the United Kingdom . He believed that there was something essentially similar about the fascism of the National Socialists ( Nazis ) on the one hand and the communists on the other, despite their opposite positions on the left–right axis . As Hans Eysenck described in his 1956 book Sense and Nonsense in Psychology , Eysenck compiled

7956-421: The flow of energy through a lake was the primary driver of the ecosystem. Hutchinson's students, brothers Howard T. Odum and Eugene P. Odum , further developed a "systems approach" to the study of ecosystems. This allowed them to study the flow of energy and material through ecological systems. Ecosystems are controlled by both external and internal factors. External factors, also called state factors, control

8073-458: The forests of eastern North America still show legacies of cultivation which ceased in 1850 when large areas were reverted to forests. Another example is the methane production in eastern Siberian lakes that is controlled by organic matter which accumulated during the Pleistocene . Ecosystems continually exchange energy and carbon with the wider environment . Mineral nutrients, on

8190-788: The form of Ferguson's original religionism and humanitarianism dimensions; Inglehart labelled them "secularism–traditionalism", which covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism, abortion , euthanasia and the importance of obeying the law and authority figures , and "survivalism – self expression", which measured issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners ) and innovation and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as homosexuality and vegetarianism , as well as willingness to engage in political activism . See for Inglehart's national chart. Though not directly related to Eysenck's research, evidence suggests there may be as many as 6 dimensions of political opinions in

8307-421: The freedom of others whenever anyone exercises their own economic freedom. He argues that such infringements produce conflicts that are resolved through property rights systems, and therefore it is essential to decide what is a better or a worse property rights system, yet Friedman simply takes for granted the existing property rights and does not question them. Political philosopher Nikolas Kompridis posits that

8424-546: The future, contrasting stasists, who allegedly fear the future and wish to control it, and dynamists, who want the future to unfold naturally and without attempts to plan and control. The distinction corresponds to the utopian versus dystopian spectrum used in some theoretical assessments of liberalism, and the book's title is borrowed from the work of the anti-utopian classic-liberal theorist Karl Popper . Other proposed axes include: As shown by Russian political scientist Stepan S. Sulakshin, political spectra can be used as

8541-482: The government's use of force. From the four main political traditions, Mitchell identifies eight distinct political perspectives diverging from a populist center. Four of these perspectives (Progressive, Individualist, Paleoconservative, and Neoconservative) fit squarely within the four traditions; four others (Paleolibertarian, Theoconservative, Communitarian, and Radical) fit between the traditions, being defined by their singular focus on rank or force. The Nolan Chart

8658-559: The importance of obeying the law and authority figures. At the bottom of the chart is the traditionalist position on issues like these (with loyalty to country and family and respect for life considered important), while at the top is the secular position. The x-axis deals with self-expression, issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners) and innovation , and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as vegetarianism , as well as willingness to engage in political activism . At

8775-691: The landscape, versus one present on an adjacent steep hillside. Other external factors that play an important role in ecosystem functioning include time and potential biota , the organisms that are present in a region and could potentially occupy a particular site. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can end up doing things very differently simply because they have different pools of species present. The introduction of non-native species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Unlike external factors, internal factors in ecosystems not only control ecosystem processes but are also controlled by them. While

8892-773: The left and right was that the left stressed the importance of equality more than the right. Despite his criticisms of Eysenck's tough–tender axis, Rokeach also postulated a basic similarity between communism and Nazism , claiming that these groups would not value freedom as greatly as more conventional social democrats , democratic socialists and capitalists would and he wrote that "the two value model presented here most resembles Eysenck's hypothesis". To test this model, Rokeach and his colleagues used content analysis on works exemplifying Nazism (written by Adolf Hitler ), communism (written by Vladimir Lenin ), capitalism (by Barry Goldwater ) and socialism (written by various authors). This method has been criticized for its reliance on

9009-418: The left, conservatism and reactionism are generally regarded as being on the right. Liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, being sometimes on the left ( social liberalism ) and other times on the right ( conservative liberalism or classical liberalism ). Those with an intermediate outlook are sometimes classified as centrists . Politics that rejects the conventional left–right spectrum

9126-423: The living and dead plant matter, and eventually released through respiration. The carbon and energy incorporated into plant tissues (net primary production) is either consumed by animals while the plant is alive, or it remains uneaten when the plant tissue dies and becomes detritus . In terrestrial ecosystems , the vast majority of the net primary production ends up being broken down by decomposers . The remainder

9243-408: The maintenance of hydrological cycles, cleaning air and water, the maintenance of oxygen in the atmosphere, crop pollination and even things like beauty, inspiration and opportunities for research. While material from the ecosystem had traditionally been recognized as being the basis for things of economic value, ecosystem services tend to be taken for granted. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

9360-405: The maintenance of oxygen in the atmosphere, crop pollination and even things like beauty, inspiration and opportunities for research. Many ecosystems become degraded through human impacts, such as soil loss , air and water pollution , habitat fragmentation , water diversion , fire suppression , and introduced species and invasive species . These threats can lead to abrupt transformation of

9477-433: The movement of matter and energy through the system, by feeding on plants and on one another. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter , decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be readily used by plants and microbes. Ecosystems provide

9594-617: The nearest candidates to that point. The dimensions of this model can also be assigned to non-political properties of the candidates, such as perceived corruption, health, etc. Most of the other spectra in this article can then be considered projections of this multi-dimensional space onto a smaller number of dimensions. For example, a study of German voters found that at least four dimensions were required to adequately represent all political parties. In 1998, political author Virginia Postrel , in her book The Future and Its Enemies , offered another single-axis spectrum that measures views of

9711-537: The other hand, are mostly cycled back and forth between plants, animals, microbes and the soil. Most nitrogen enters ecosystems through biological nitrogen fixation , is deposited through precipitation, dust, gases or is applied as fertilizer . Most terrestrial ecosystems are nitrogen-limited in the short term making nitrogen cycling an important control on ecosystem production. Over the long term, phosphorus availability can also be critical. Macronutrients which are required by all plants in large quantities include

9828-509: The other. Despite this, the cumulative effect of additional species in an ecosystem is not linear: additional species may enhance nitrogen retention, for example. However, beyond some level of species richness, additional species may have little additive effect unless they differ substantially from species already present. This is the case for example for exotic species . The addition (or loss) of species that are ecologically similar to those already present in an ecosystem tends to only have

9945-403: The overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem. On broad geographic scales, climate is the factor that "most strongly determines ecosystem processes and structure". Climate determines the biome in which the ecosystem is embedded. Rainfall patterns and seasonal temperatures influence photosynthesis and thereby determine

10062-405: The plants in an ecosystem is called the gross primary production (GPP). About half of the gross GPP is respired by plants in order to provide the energy that supports their growth and maintenance. The remainder, that portion of GPP that is not used up by respiration, is known as the net primary production (NPP). Total photosynthesis is limited by a range of environmental factors. These include

10179-581: The political spectrum as well, especially to popular two-dimensional models of it. Most long-standing spectra include the left–right dimension as a measure of social, political and economic hierarchy which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution (1789–1799), with radicals on the left and aristocrats on the right . While communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on

10296-585: The primary nutrients (which are most limiting as they are used in largest amounts): Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium. Secondary major nutrients (less often limiting) include: Calcium, magnesium, sulfur. Micronutrients required by all plants in small quantities include boron, chloride, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, zinc. Finally, there are also beneficial nutrients which may be required by certain plants or by plants under specific environmental conditions: aluminum, cobalt, iodine, nickel, selenium, silicon, sodium, vanadium. Until modern times, nitrogen fixation

10413-413: The primary producers. The organisms that consume their tissues are called primary consumers or secondary producers — herbivores . Organisms which feed on microbes ( bacteria and fungi ) are termed microbivores . Animals that feed on primary consumers— carnivores —are secondary consumers. Each of these constitutes a trophic level. The sequence of consumption—from plant to herbivore, to carnivore—forms

10530-419: The process of recovering from some past disturbance. The tendency of an ecosystem to remain close to its equilibrium state, despite that disturbance, is termed its resistance . The capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks is termed its ecological resilience . Ecosystems can be studied through

10647-697: The pursuit of freedom in the modern era can be broadly divided into two motivating ideals, namely freedom as autonomy or independence and freedom as the ability to cooperatively initiate a new beginning. Political freedom has also been theorized in its opposition to and a condition of power relations, or the power of action upon actions, by Michel Foucault . It has also been closely identified with certain kinds of artistic and cultural practice by Cornelius Castoriadis , Antonio Gramsci , Herbert Marcuse , Jacques Rancière and Theodor Adorno . Environmentalists often argue that political freedoms should include some constraint on use of ecosystems . They maintain there

10764-408: The related concepts of dogmatism and authoritarianism" and is characterized by "believing in strong leaders and submission, preferring one's own in-group, ethnocentrism and nationalism, aggression against dissidents, and control with the help of police and military". Greenberg and Jonas posit that high ideological rigidity can be motivated by "particularly strong needs to reduce fear and uncertainty" and

10881-520: The results to factor analysis , he was able to identify three factors, which he named religionism , humanitarianism and nationalism . He defined religionism as belief in God and negative attitudes toward evolution and birth control ; humanitarianism as being related to attitudes opposing war, capital punishment and harsh treatment of criminals ; and nationalism as describing variation in opinions on censorship, law, patriotism and communism. This system

10998-620: The right and what Nolan originally named populists in the bottom. Several popular online tests, where individuals can self-identify their political values, utilize the same two axes as the Nolan Chart, including The Political Compass , iSideWith.com and MapMyPolitics.org. The spatial model of voting plots voters and candidates in a multi-dimensional space where each dimension represents a single political issue sub-component of an issue, or candidate attribute. Voters are then modeled as having an "ideal point" in this space and voting for

11115-630: The right emphasizing state authority or protections for norm enforcement (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"). The other axis is rationalism , defined here as the belief in planned social progress, with those higher up believing that there are problems with society that can be rationally solved and those lower down skeptical of such approaches. In 2006, Brian Patrick Mitchell identified four main political traditions in Anglo-American history based on their regard for kratos (defined as

11232-499: The right of the chart is the open self-expressionist position, while at the left is its opposite position, which Inglehart calls survivalist. This chart not only has the power to map the values of individuals, but also to compare the values of people in different countries. Placed on this chart, European Union countries in continental Europe come out on the top right, Anglophone countries on the middle right, Latin American countries on

11349-403: The right to the product of one's labor or freedom of association for less racial discrimination or more subsidies for housing. Social anarchists describe the negative liberty-centric view endorsed by capitalism as "selfish freedom". Anarcho-capitalists see negative rights as a consistent system. Ayn Rand described it as "a moral principle defining and sanctioning a man's freedom of action in

11466-611: The soil, react with mineral soil, or are transported beyond the confines of the ecosystem (and are considered lost to it). Newly shed leaves and newly dead animals have high concentrations of water-soluble components and include sugars , amino acids and mineral nutrients. Leaching is more important in wet environments and less important in dry ones. Fragmentation processes break organic material into smaller pieces, exposing new surfaces for colonization by microbes. Freshly shed leaf litter may be inaccessible due to an outer layer of cuticle or bark , and cell contents are protected by

11583-511: The soil, where plants, fungi, and bacteria compete for it. Some soil bacteria use organic nitrogen-containing compounds as a source of carbon, and release ammonium ions into the soil. This process is known as nitrogen mineralization . Others convert ammonium to nitrite and nitrate ions, a process known as nitrification . Nitric oxide and nitrous oxide are also produced during nitrification. Under nitrogen-rich and oxygen-poor conditions, nitrates and nitrites are converted to nitrogen gas ,

11700-483: The spatial extent of ecosystems using the term " ecotope ". G. Evelyn Hutchinson , a limnologist who was a contemporary of Tansley's, combined Charles Elton 's ideas about trophic ecology with those of Russian geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky . As a result, he suggested that mineral nutrient availability in a lake limited algal production . This would, in turn, limit the abundance of animals that feed on algae. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas further to suggest that

11817-435: The studies linking biology to politics remain controversial and unreplicated, although the overall body of evidence is growing. Studies have found that subjects with conservative political views have larger amygdalae and are more prone to feeling disgust . Liberals have larger volume of grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex and are better at detecting errors in recurring patterns. The anterior cingulate cortex

11934-421: The transfers of energy and materials from one pool to another. Ecosystem processes are known to "take place at a wide range of scales". Therefore, the correct scale of study depends on the question asked. The term "ecosystem" was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley . The term was coined by Arthur Roy Clapham , who came up with the word at Tansley's request. Tansley devised

12051-467: The treatment of criminals and to sexual issues and military issues. Most research and political theory since this time has replicated the factors shown above. Another replication came from Ronald Inglehart 's research into national opinions based on the World Values Survey , although Inglehart's research described the values of countries rather than individuals or groups of individuals within nations . Inglehart's two-factor solution took

12168-505: The use of force) and archē or "archy" (defined as the recognition of rank). Mitchell grounded the distinction of archy and kratos in the West's historical experience of church and state, crediting the collapse of the Christian consensus on church and state with the appearance of four main divergent traditions in Western political thought: Mitchell charts these traditions graphically using

12285-415: The variation of political views. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology , conflicts regarding redistribution of wealth may have been common in the ancestral environment and humans may have developed psychological mechanisms for judging their own chances of succeeding in such conflicts. These mechanisms affect political views. Ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system )

12402-417: The will , or inner freedom, around the 5th century CE and since then freedom as a form of political action has been neglected even though, as she says, freedom is "the raison d'être of politics". Arendt says that political freedom is historically opposed to sovereignty or will-power since in ancient Greece and Rome the concept of freedom was inseparable from performance and did not arise as a conflict between

12519-459: The will and the self. Similarly, the idea of freedom as freedom from politics is a notion that developed in modern times. This is opposed to the idea of freedom as the capacity to "begin anew", which Arendt sees as a corollary to the innate human condition of natality, or our nature as "new beginnings and hence beginners". In Arendt's view, political action is an interruption of automatic process, either natural or historical. The freedom to begin anew

12636-426: Was created by libertarian David Nolan . This chart shows what he considers as " economic freedom " (issues like taxation, free trade and free enterprise) on the horizontal axis and what he considers as "personal freedom" (issues like drug legalization , abortion and the draft ) on the vertical axis. This puts left-wingers in the left quadrant, libertarians in the top, centrists in the middle, right-wingers in

12753-453: Was defined as positively viewing evolution theory, strikes, welfare state, mixed marriages , student protests, law reform, women's liberation, United Nations, nudist camps, pop-music, modern art, immigration, abolishing private property, and rejection of patriotism. Conservatism was defined as positively viewing white superiority, birching, death penalty, antisemitism, opposition to nationalization of property, and birth control. Tender-mindedness

12870-414: Was defined by moral training, inborn conscience, Bible truth, chastity, self-denial, pacifism, anti-discrimination, being against the death penalty and harsh treatment of criminals. Tough-mindedness was defined by compulsory sterilization, euthanasia, easier divorce laws, racism, antisemitism, compulsory military training, wife swapping, casual living, death penalty, and harsh treatment of criminals. Despite

12987-413: Was derived empirically, as rather than devising a political model on purely theoretical grounds and testing it, Ferguson's research was exploratory. As a result of this method, care must be taken in the interpretation of Ferguson's three factors, as factor analysis will output an abstract factor whether an objectively real factor exists or not. Although replication of the nationalism factor was inconsistent,

13104-630: Was more complex. Eysenck himself lent theoretical support to the English National Party , which also opposed Hitlerite Nazism, and was interviewed in the first issue of their journal The Beacon in relation to his controversial views on relative intelligence between different races. At one point during the interview, Eysenck was asked whether or not he was of Jewish origin before the interviewer proceeded. His political allegiances were called into question by other researchers, notably Steven Rose , who alleged that his scientific research

13221-672: Was not shy in attacking Stalinism , citing the antisemitic prejudices of the Russian government, the luxurious lifestyles of the Soviet Union leadership and the Orwellian " doublethink " of East Germany's naming itself the German Democratic Republic despite being "one of the most undemocratic regimes in the world today". While Eysenck was an opponent of Nazism, his relationship with fascist organizations

13338-700: Was that in the United States and the United Kingdom, most of the political variance was subsumed by the left/right axis, while in France the T-axis was larger and in the Middle East the only dimension to be found was the T-axis: "Among mid-Eastern Arabs it has been found that while the tough-minded/tender-minded dimension is still clearly expressed in the relationships observed between different attitudes, there

13455-498: Was the claim that tender-minded ideologies were democratic and friendly to human freedoms , while tough-minded ideologies were aggressive and authoritarian, a claim that is open to political criticism. In this context, Eysenck carried out studies on Nazism and communist groups, claiming to find members of both groups to be more "dominant" and more "aggressive" than control groups. Eysenck left Nazi Germany to live in Britain and

13572-679: Was the major source of nitrogen for ecosystems. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria either live symbiotically with plants or live freely in the soil. The energetic cost is high for plants that support nitrogen-fixing symbionts—as much as 25% of gross primary production when measured in controlled conditions. Many members of the legume plant family support nitrogen-fixing symbionts. Some cyanobacteria are also capable of nitrogen fixation. These are phototrophs , which carry out photosynthesis. Like other nitrogen-fixing bacteria, they can either be free-living or have symbiotic relationships with plants. Other sources of nitrogen include acid deposition produced through

13689-417: Was used for political purposes. Eysenck's conception of tough-mindedness has been criticized for a number of reasons. Dissatisfied with Hans J. Eysenck's work, Milton Rokeach developed his own two-axis model of political values in 1973, basing this on the ideas of freedom and equality , which he described in his book, The Nature of Human Values . Rokeach claimed that the defining difference between

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