BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

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ISLAND SYNDROME 1)2)4)

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The diminished resistance to environmental disturbances in small systems.

Small systems offer very limited variety, because specific traits (genetic, or cultural, for instance) appear in very few individuals, thus becoming easily lost.

This can be observed for example in animal and vegetal populations in islands or in natural reserves or parks of reduced extension. A small population, with limited genetic variety, can easily be wiped out by, for instance, a newly introduced predator or pathogen.

Such an event may well trigger a more extended instability in the ecosystem and lead to crashes in other species (D. Quammen, 1997).

A similar effect has been observed in small aboriginal populations confronted with invasors. In Southern Argentina and Chile such populations were decimated by infectious diseases against which they had no immunity. Most of them finally became extinct and their cultural traits, as for example language, have been totally lost.

Cultural traits may also be lost when small populations accept new beliefs and ways of life introduced by colonizers.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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