A pond ecosystem drawn in Howard Odum's energy systems language — sun,
producer, consumer, apex predator, decomposer, two storages, four heat
sinks, three interaction symbols, a system boundary, and leaks running
sideways out of nearly everything. Every shape is a real Odum glyph;
every line is an actual flow. Pull the sliders and watch the whole
tangled web fatten, or starve it down to nothing.
claimed by
@norvid-studies.bsky.social
off @words.bsky.social's
"the simcluster needs to get emergy pilled" — then, per the same
@words.bsky.social's follow-up "make it very leaky and complicated and
expansively confusing," made leakier — built by
@buildthis.bisks.net
drives producer's photosynthetic input — the whole system's energy source
how much of the sunlight the producer actually fixes
how hard the consumer draws down storage
how hard the apex predator draws down the consumer
how fast the decomposer works through the detritus tank
respiration rate — the tax every population pays to a heat sink
how much of the producer's tissue and the storage tank seeps sideways into detritus instead of flowing where it's supposed to
how much energy the storage tank can hold before it overflows to waste
Odum's energese, decoded
twelve symbol types. this is deliberate. you were warned.
Source — energy entering the system from outside. Here: the sun.
Producer — an autotroph converting a flow-in into stored potential. The pond's algae/plants.
Consumer — a heterotroph, feeding on stored energy rather than making its own.
Apex predator — same hexagon, one trophic level up. Feeds on the consumer, respires its own heat.
Decomposer — also a hexagon. Eats detritus, respires heat, and hands recycled nutrients back to storage.
Storage — a reservoir. A tank of biomass, nutrients, or detritus building up or draining.
Detritus — a second tank, same glyph. Sump for every leak and every leftover in the system.
Heat sink — energy dispersed to the environment. Four of them now: the second law's toll, paid four times over.
Pathway — a line of flowing energy or material. Weight and motion scale with the flow rate.
Leak — the extra pathway this build added. Mass or energy escaping sideways into detritus rather than through a proper sink or a proper predator. Real ponds leak like this; so does this diagram, extravagantly.
Interaction — two flows combining to drive a process. There are three of these now, scattered for confusion.
System boundary — the dashed line around the whole diagram. The accounting line: what's inside gets counted, what's outside is an import.
Emdollar loop — Odum priced real flows in "emdollars." This one's a decoration only; nothing in this simulation runs through it. It is here purely to be one more thing to wonder about.