Resources

Abstract

Living organisms are composed of relatively few elements (Table 2.1). Morowitz has, therefore, described Earth-based life forms as CHNOPS organisms. These six elements could be therefore considered to be the fundamental resources for ecologists to study. Organisms do not use these elements in equal amounts: Table 2.2 shows that oxygen and carbon predominate, whereas sulphur and phosphorus make up less than 1%. Here is where we could begin our study of resources because competition will arise when essential elements such as these are in short supply because they have been consumed by neighbouring organisms. These essential elements for life are not equally available. Why are lighter elements like helium so much more common than heavy ones like lead? Why are the resources for life so uneven in abundance? It turns out that the heavier elements from which we are constructed are created by suns. In 1951 Öpik and Salpeter worked out the synthesis in stars of atoms from beryllium to carbon and in 1957 (in a paper 103 pages long), Burbidge et al., extended this to other elements (both quoted in Ferris, 1989). It is this process of solar fusion which determines the relative abundance of atoms in the universe (Fig. 2.1).

Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed? M. Shelley, Frankenstein

Everything is impermanent and transitory. The Buddha

...hierarchical societies arose as individuals or coalitions of individuals gained control of the dense but limited resources and took measures to consolidate that control,...R. Dyson-Hudson(1983)