Howard T. Odum - Ecosystem Ecology and Systems Ecology

Ecosystem Ecology and Systems Ecology

Main articles: Ecosystem ecology and systems ecology

For J.B. Hagen, the maximum power principle, and the stability principle could be easily translated into the language of homeostasis and cybernetics systems. Hagen claims that the feedback loops in ecosystems, were, for Odum, analogous to the kinds of feedback loops diagrammed in electronic circuits and cybernetic systems (Ibid.). This approach represented the migration of cybernetic ideas into ecology and led to the formulation of systems ecology. In Odum's work these concepts form part of what Hagen called an, "ambitious and idiosyncratic attempt to create a universal science of systems" (Ibid).