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Entropy
Derived from the Greek word for transformation, entropy is the part of energy not converted to work but is
instead dissipated to its surroundings. The concept of entropy stems from the second law of thermodynamics that
states isolated systems tend toward disorder and entropy is a measure of that disorder. However, in the applied
science and agricultural systems, entropy is more commonly defined as a measure of the degree of spreading out
rather than of disorder. Measuring the degree of entropy overproduction has been proposed as a way to quantify the
sustainability of agroecosystems. According to the laws of thermodynamics, all ecosystems, including
agroecosystems, are open thermodynamic systems. Although climax or natural ecosystems maintain a state of
equilibrium, in which the amount of entropy produced by the system equals the amount exported, many
agroecosystems accumulate excess entropy.

A natural ecosystem in its climax state has achieved thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment, meaning
there has been no net change in entropy between the system and the environment. Beginning with an initial
thermodynamic equilibrium, work done on an ecosystem by the environment (e.g., solar energy) decreases entropy
by creating new biomass (e.g., through photosynthesis). This decrease in entropy is followed by a spontaneous and
reversible process in which the system returns to an initial state through respiration and decompositionprocesses
that increase the system's entropy. Both increasing and decreasing entropy occur simultaneously: Entropy
accumulates and leaves a system at the same time. The cycle of increasing and decreasing entropy can be repeated
infinitely, maintaining a thermodynamic equilibrium indefinitely.

Unlike human-dominated systems, natural ecosystems do not accumulate entropy over time, as excess entropy is
constantly exported to the surrounding environment. For the (solar) energy pump to work, only heat can be
transferred from the ecosystem to the environment. The entropy pump is quantitatively defined as the following:
entropy export = Si = G/T (G = gross primary production, T = time; assumption made that gross primary
production is transformed into heat).

When the human-dominated ecosystem, or technosphere, invests energy to compete for natural resources with the
natural ecosystem, disequilibrium can occur. Entropy excesses from the technosphere can be compensated through
three processes: (1) biosphere degradation, (2) climatic changes, or (3) artificial spatial redistribution. This latter
compensation is sometimes considered a sustainable development strategy locally but is made possible only
through entropy dumps elsewhere. An example of this is the removal of waste from cities to remote rural areas or
even to overseas destinations.

In agroecosystems, the natural entropy cycle is disrupted through entropy overproduction caused by artificial
energy inputs. Artificial energy inputs used to increase crop production (at least in the short term) include fertilizers,
herbicides, and combustibles used to drive complex machinery. To the extent increased entropy associated with
artificially intensified crop production fails to be exported to the environment, ecosystem degradation (e.g., soil
erosion) occurs as the system strives to retain equilibrium. Entropy can therefore be usefully employed as an
ultimate quantitative measure of agroecosystem sustainability. The entropy balance equation for agroecosytems is
described as follows:

= 1/T [y(1/n + 1/s) 1] P 0

= entropy
T = time
s = k(1 r)
r = mean respiration coefficient
P 0 = gross primary production of ecosystem in climax state natural ecosystem
y = crop yield = k(1 r) P 1
k = fraction of net production that is being extracted from system
P 1 = gross agroecosystem production

According to David Pimental, although agroecosystems have varied energy efficiency coefficients, they all share a
threshold past which sustainability is lost. Therefore, if > 0, the system accumulates entropy and the ecosystem
becomes degraded, leading to system death and the formation of a new equilibrium. This process can be reversed if
an energy source can export excess entropy out of the system. In sum, excess entropy can either be (1)
accumulated in a system, causing degradation and eventually death, or (2) removed from the system and
equilibrium reestablished. From the vantage of coupled humanenvironment systems, environmental degradation

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can be conceived of as a type of entropy tax levied on modern industrial agriculture. Whether this tax is paid by
farmers, taxpayers, consumers, or all of the above is predicated on politicaleconomic subsidies, laws, and
production and distribution incentives and norms.

Entropy has been used as a sustainability measure for agroecosystems in recent years. Monocultures are efficient in
the short term but lack resilience and remove mass from the ecosystem. For example, in northern Germany, Wolf
Steinborn and Yuri Svirezhev demonstrate how entropy changes with varying land management strategies: Land
uses that reduced artificial energy inputs moved the system closer to sustainability. However, the system failed to
achieve suitability, as it still created more energy than could be exported.

The unsustainability of the maize agroecosystem, recently in high demand as a result of ethanol incentives, has
been well documented by several authors. Yuri Svirezhev and Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins, for example, predicted
that Hungarian maize agriculture will lead to agricultural disaster within 3040 years as a result of excess entropy,
taking the form of physical and chemical soil degradation and toxic effluent runoff. Maize agriculture in the United
States may be similarly threatened by entropic outcomes. Erosion from U.S. maize agriculture reaches an average
of 2345 tons per hectare per year, 510 times greater than the erosion produced from conventional agriculture,
and up to 30 times the erosion rate of no-till agriculture. In addition to causing erosion, agroecosystem entropy can
also manifest itself in soil acidification, build up of metal compounds and toxic residues, and air pollution (ammonia,
nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, monoxide, methane). Conversely, organic maize agriculture may be considered
sustainable if it generates only as much entropy as the displaced native prairie ecosystem. This would require that
the sources of generated entropy are derived not from chemical and fossil fuels (that the excess can be radiated into
space) but only from solar energy and recycled local biomass.

Although each crop yields different values of overproduction of entropy, much of the difference in entropy among
crops is the result of high artificial energy inputs more than inherent characteristics of the crop itself. What remains
clear is that a decrease in artificial energy inputs would improve agroecosystem sustainability. It is also clear that
current farming techniques remain far from achieving a sustainable thermodynamic state. Minimum entropy
production will remain the ultimate sustainability criterion. On the basis of this definition, farming systems that
approach steady states will be increasingly necessary in a world of continued population growth and even more
rapid growth in energy and food energy consumption.

David L. Carr University of California, Santa Barbara Leah Bremer San Diego State University

Further Readings
Addiscott, T. M. Entropy and Sustainability. European Journal of Soil Science. vol. 46 no. 2 (2005).

Eulenstein, F. , W. Haberstock , W. Steinborn , Y. Svirezhev , J. Olejnik , S. L. Schlindwein , and V. Pomaz.

Perspectives from Energetic-Thermodynamic Analysis of Land Use Systems. Archives of Agronomy and Soil
Sciences. vol. 49 (2003).

Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas. The Entropy Law and the Economic Process Boston, MA: Harvard University Press,
1971.

Leff, Harvey S. Entropy, Its Language and Interpretation. Foundations of Physics. vol. 37 (2007).

Patzek, Tad W. Thermodynamics of Agricultural Sustainability: The Case of U.S. Maize Agriculture. Critical Reviews
in Plant Sciences. vol. 27 (2008).

Pimental, David , ed. Handbook of Energy Utilization in Agriculture. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1980.

Steinborn, Wolf and Yuri Svirezhev. Entropy as an Indicator of Sustainability in Agro-ecosystems: North Germany
Case Study. Ecological Modeling. vol. 133 (2000).

Svirezhev, Yuri M. and Anastasia Svirejeva-Hopkins. Sustainable Biosphere: Critical Overview of Basic Concept of
Sustainability. Ecological Modeling. vol. 106 (1998).

Entry Citation:
Carr, David L., and Leah Bremer. "Entropy." Green Energy: An A-to-Z Guide. 2010. SAGE Publications. 23 Nov.
2010. <http://www.sage-ereference.com/greenenergy/Article_n42.html>.

SAGE Publications, Inc.

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