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Biotic Resources
CHAPTER 6
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Biotic resources…
 Raw materials…
 Ecological services…
 Absorption capacity…
 Increased level in complexity + increased level in ignorance and
uncertainty
 Why?
(1) Intrinsic value we give to living systems. they are almost entirely
considered as means to various ends, where one of the foremost
ends is the sustenance of life
(2) Processes responsible for sustained reproduction of individuals, pop
or species: highly complex and poorly understood
(3) Individuals, pop, and species interact w/ other individuals, pop and
species – as well as abiotic resources, to create an ecosystem
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 Ecosystem structure
 Individuals and communities of which the
ecosystem is composed, their age and spatial
distribution, and the abiotic resources;
 Ecosystem function
 Emergent phenomena - Energy transfer, nutrient
cycling, gas regulation, climate regulation, and the
water cycle
 Variability, ignorance, and uncertainty…
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 What are the different kinds of ignorance?
 We know what we don’t know
 We don’t know what we don’t know
 We think we know what we don’t know
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 Risk
 Knowing the possible outcomes and their probabilities
 A calculable or insurable cost
 (pure) Uncertainty
 Knowing outcomes but not probabilities
 Not insurable cost
 Ignorance
 Do not even know the range of possible outcomes
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 Risk
 Estimating stocks of natural resources
 Estimating reproductive rates for cultivated species
 (pure) Uncertainty
 Estimating reproductive rates for wild species
 Estimating ecological thresholds
 Ignorance
 Estimating the alternate state into which an ecosystem
might flip when it passes and ecological threshold
or how humans may adapt
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 How do we choose to handle uncertainty in
economic analysis is ultimately an ethical
decision.
 Still…
 What is the degree of uncertainty..
 Note: although separate (academically),
ecosystem structure and ecosystem
function are highly *interdependent*
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3 categories of biotic resources
1.
Renewable resources

Provide the raw materials
2. Ecosystem services
 Ecosystem functions of value to
humans and generated as emergent
phenomena by the interacting elements
of ecosystem structure
3. Waste absorption capacity
 An ecosystem service that is sufficiently
distinct from the others to warrant
separate treatment
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Renewable Resources
 Regarded as material stock-flow resources; elements
of ecosystem structure
 Can be extracted as fast as we desire
 Capable of reproduction
 Stock = flow (what does that mean?)
 Actual extraction rates must lie on or below this line
 We can extract the entire stock at one time
 Sustainable yield (MSY = max. sustainable yield)
 Net annual reproduction from a given stock
 Risk, pure uncertainty, and ignorance
 Critical depensation = minimum viable population
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Ecosystem Services
 Examples of ecosystem services?
 Example of Forests:
 A stock of trees that generates a flow of trees
 Harvested and used immediately
 Stockpiled for later use
 A creator of services quite different
 Cannot be stockpiled to be used at any rate we choose
 “Intact ecosystems are funds that provide ecosystem
services, while their structural components are stocks
that provide a flow of raw materials.”
 They cannot be ‘worn out’ like fund-service resources
or ‘used up’ like stock-flow resources
 Know table 6.1: examples of services provided by
ecosystems
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Relationship betw. natural capital stocks & funds
Structural elements of an ecosystem are:
Stocks of biotic and abiotic resources
When combined together generate ecosystem functions or services
Use of a biological stock unsustainably depletes a corresponding fund
and the services it provides (?)
 It is impossible to create something from nothing; production requires
inputs of ecosystem structure; requires a flow of natural resources
generated by a stock of natural capital
 An excessive rate of flow extracted from a stock affects not only the
stock and its ability to provide a flow in the future But also the fund to
which the stock contributes and the services that fund provides
 Even abiotic stocks can only be extracted and consumed at some cost
to the ecosystem
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 All economic production thus has an impact on ecosystem services and
because this impact is unavoidable, it is completely internal to the economic
process
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Waste absorption capacity – the
other half of the story
 Raw materials return as high-entropy waste
 Assimilated into the environment…
 Fixed rate (conversion: any rate we choose)
 Sink for which we have control over the flow from the
faucet but not the size of the drain
 Impact sink by changing ecosystem structure
 Before the point where waste flows > waste absorption
capacity, ↓in flows allows recuperation
 Capacity different depending on product
 Rival (how?); easy to make Excludable
 Table 6.2
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Big ideas to remember
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Ecosystem structure
Ecosystem function
Ecosystem services
Stock-flow and fund-service resources
Risk, uncertainty, ignorance
Carrying capacity
Minimum viable population
Critical depensation
Maximum sustainable yield
Waste absorption capacity
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CHAPTER 7
You are responsible for this chapter on your own.
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Chapter 7
 Be sure to know:
 Exponential growth
 Doubling time
 Hubbert curve
 Source and sink limits
 Measures of ‘fullness’ of the world
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