What’s the quickest way to restore nature? Simple. Rebuild structure

The underlying simplicity of ecological system structure

Ecology gives you an understanding of how most things work and that ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More are built around their structure and function(Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. More. So, what’s the quickest way to restore nature? Simple. Rebuild its structure. And why? Because this is the bit we have the power to do something about. The hard bit is creating functionality as that requires abundant animal life.

I was fortunate to study ecology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. For anyone who wonders about the value of a tertiary education in ecology, hardly a day goes by, without me reflecting on something I learnt. One of my first year supervisors, Dr Bill Sutherland, tweeted this the other day and it illustrates the fundamentals of what we can all do. The difference we can make. It’s a reminder that if you get the conditions right, nature will do the rest. Once we see this, it becomes a most powerful and rewarding partnership with the world around us. All we really need to do to restore nature is:

1. Remove threats;
2. Recreate structure; and
3. Let animals do the rest.

Ecosystem structure and function

So, In this blog, I want to talk about how most systems, from the built environment to our languages and your body, are founded on simple rules. We’ll also discover how the components in a structure diversify (evolve) over time so they can function in complex ways, once put into practice by animals.

There are four examples I am going to use to demonstrate this. The first is LEGO®, the second is Amino Acids (the building blocks of all life) and the third is the creation of structurally-strong concrete. The fourth will be the stable energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More pyramids that hold ecosystems together.

Coming to grips with this idea should be empowering, because it makes you realise that you can have a significant part to play in restoring Earth’s ecosystems. It’s useful to know the part you can control and what you can’t. Too many people waste time either trying to understand things that are too complex, or attempting to control things that are too unwieldy. The result is we are allowing animals to go extinct without realising their fundamental importance for all nature and our species’ survival.

The evolution of LEGO®

I’m going to start with a technical concept and explain it very simply using LEGO®.

The commonest lego brick is a 2 x 1 piece, and has an entropyThe degree of disorder or chaos in a system, most often used to describe thermodynamic energy but also used the behaviour of information. All else being equal, physics determines that all matter and energy moves towards chaos, therefore biological systems are in a continual state of battling against entropic forces in order to remain stable. The most stable ecosystem is More of 4.4 bits. This means, at the most basic level possible, 4.4 pieces of information are needed to describe that brick’s position in a structure that is recognisable. That’s what entropy is. It’s a measure of how ordered things are. The less uncertainty there is, the better the outcome.

In other words, if we want that brick to form part of a shape that you or I would understand, this would be the average number of mistakes we would make before we guess the next brick correctly. We all know as children, that few brick types are needed to design complex structures. We can make fire stations, ducks or spaceships using simple repeated block patterns.

Lego, therefore, is like a language. Bricks are like words and structures are like sentences. It’s a way of making something that communicates what it is, to the outside world. You build a fire station in real life and soon, it will be filled with fire engines and fire fighters.

We use lego to build things we recognise, because we’re animals and that’s in our nature. But as we’ve become more accustomed to using lego, the complexity has increased. Every year, new pieces are added, allowing slightly more sophisticated communication. Lego is evolving in the same way as languages evolve over time, to add new but rarer words.

That is exactly the same way that evolution happens and how ecosystems become stable. Over time, more and more specialised components develop. Stability is merely the illusion of being able to read your surroundings and fit in.

Amino Acids are the building blocks of all life on Earth

There are only 22 common types of amino acid. Everything in the world, including your body, is made from these basic blocks. So, it may not surprise you to learn, that the entropy of individual amino acids (like the 2 x 1 lego brick) is quite small – 4.18 bits, according to this research. However, the average protein is 100 amino acids in size, which creates a ridiculously large number of possible patterns.

But like everything in nature, patterns are not random. Not all patterns survive. Patterns only persist when they fit in with purpose and function. Likewise, we don’t create words just because we can. The phrase ‘lockdown’ became synonymous during the pandemic but was hardly used before. It became relevant only because of a connection between the environment and our behaviour.

Like in lego, there is a slow diversification of amino acid combinations that change with culture. If you’ve read other parts of this blog, you’ll recall me talking about how wildlife culture is the driver for ecosystem stability. And how animals are programmed to constantly alter their environment. But only the likeliest survive. Animals that create behaviours and structures that can be read by other components of an ‘ecosystem’ are more likely to persist. The acoustic world, the way you communicate, is the way your culture connects with the environment. Your speech is every a bond with the ecosystem, in the same way as the amino acids above, form chemical bonds.

If you’ve had your mind blown now, that was my intention.

But the benefit of knowing this, is that we can recreate these basic structures. We cannot create functional complexity without wildlife but the bit that is in our control to influence, is the structural simplicity. Shallow and deep areas, rock pools, meanderings and clear water, are the basic building blocks of a functioning river system.

Creating strong concrete structures that last

Look around at what engineers commonly do. They remove structural complexity. They put in pipes, flatten ground and make things ‘easy’ for one animal to manage. But ecologists know that ecosystems are far too complex to exist without many animals working together. Traditional engineering is the antithesis of a functioning system.

Our erosion of ecosystem structure not only makes it difficult to recreate functionality, it also makes things weak, less resilient and prone to impacts from outside forces. For example, as we weaken ecosystems, we are more vulnerable to climate change.

What if I told you, that the strength of any system, follows similar patterns to lego bricks and language. By now, that may not surprise you. The curves you can see below are what mathematicians call ‘power equations’ and they are found throughout nature. If you are creating a high rise building and want concrete that doesn’t crumble, you would mix it with gravel, which has a large number of small particles and fewer large particles. Get the mix just right and it’s very strong. Too many big parts and it no longer resembles concrete. Too small and the slurry dries very brittle and crumbles.

The quickest way to build a habitable ecosystem structure that functions

If you desire an ecosystem that supports human life, all components want to be in balance. Rebuilding structure is the quickest way to restore nature because it it is more stable. For instance, you don’t want a farming landscape dominated by locusts and mice. You want one with a range of animal sizes, all the way to top predators.

Energy flows through ecosystems and is contained safely inside food chains, in the same way as concrete stays strong. Concrete holds up buildings, despite immense outside pressure, because it’s made of particles that withstand this. Ecosystems are no different. An ecosystem without abundant and diverse wildlife in the right proportions and places, will crumble because of the impact of energy. But unlike concrete, ecosystems are living and constantly renewing their strength. This is as long as they are maintained by wildlife!

What I see, when presented with a lifeless landscape (even one where many trees have been replanted) is a structure that is decaying faster than it can keep hold of its nutrients (energy) – the basis for our food security. The energy that’s needed for ecosystems to function for our survival, is draining away, because of a lack of animals rebuilding and maintaining this every day.

Restoring wildlife populations is the only way to reverse ecosystem decline. As humans, we can influence the structural side but we cannot hope to restore function without abundant wildlife.