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Ecological energetics is the quantitative study of the flow of energy through ecological systems. It aims to uncover the principles which describe the propensity of such energy flows through the trophic, or 'energy availing' levels of ecological networks. In systems ecology the principles of ecosystem energy flows or "ecosystem laws" (i.e. principles of ecological energetics) are considered formally analogous to the principles of energetics.
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History
Ecological energetics appears to have grown out of the Age of enlightenment and the concerns of the physiocrats. It had it's beginning in the works of Podolinksy in the late 1800's, and was subsequently developed by the soviet ecologist Stanchinskii, the Austro-American Lotka, and American limnologists, Lindeman and Hutchenson. It underwent substantial development by H.T.Odum and was applied by systems ecologists.
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