Santos – Anthroposystem Concept
• Study of human environments – since humans are
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Depleting the plant’s natural resources
Polluting the environment
• Anthroposystem – basic scientific principles that the economy is
subject to the laws of ecology
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Forces people to think in terms of sustainable system, not just sustainable economic
development
Society requires a sustainable economic system and industrial processes that
mimic natural ecosystems
Helps us comprehend the ways in which the real world diverges from the ideal
Structural and functional unit of the environment
Self – contained system provided it has an energy source
The four components:
matrix – composed of all non-living and non-productive parts of the system (ie. Roads)
producers – manufactures products (agricultural, industrial, and ecospheric resources)
consumers –humans and domesticated animals
decomposers – WWTP, resource recovery pants, natural decomposers of ecosphere
• Ecological perspective – concept of sustainable economic development does not
make easier the connection of a stable society functioning within an ecosphere.
• Ecology – the interaction of organisms with each other and their environment
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Energy used is never completely efficient (cannot be recycled)
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Prof Husar - Ecosystem and the Biosphere
• Anthroposystem – human analog
– 3 groups
• Producers – energy production, manufacturing, and growing food
• Consumers – humans and domestic animals
• Recyclers (Decomposers) – WWT, recycling metals and solid waste
– Lacks efficient material recyclers that allow sustainable development.
– Open system
• Environmental spheres analogy extends the ecosystem analogy
– Considers the flow of matter in all environmental compartments (air, land,
water, biota)
– Closes the system by following the flow and fate of matter, regardless of
location and medium of transfer
– Concludes human activities most closely resemble the role of the
biosphere in the mobilization of matter
– 3 groups
• Producers – plants, bacteria
• Consumers – animals and their consumption
• Decomposer – fungi and bacterial
– Nature is capable of sustaining the producer-consumer-decomposer cycle
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Critical Comparison of both
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Similarities
Both require an understanding of the interaction between human activates and natural
process
Both have anthroposystem and ecosystem
Economic and ecological systems are interwoven and overlapping but separate
Difference between the ecosystem and anthroposystem is the physical separation of
producers, consumers and recyclers
Differences
Santos
Anthroposystem
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4 components: matrix, producers, consumers, decomposers
Self-contained system provided it has an energy source
Requires a sustainable economy to recycle used products and resources
Requires an economy that minimizes pollution
Prof Husar
Anthroposystem
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3 components : producers, consumers, and decomposers
Open system
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