INHIBITING EFFECTS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1701 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
The negative effects on efficiency or growth of elements, populations, or subsystems due to excessive closeness or overcrowding.
Any element or subsystem needs a sufficient space for its correct functioning. Furthermore, it benefits from heterogenity, because it diminishes unfavorable competition between elements of the same type when they are sufficiently spaced. In M. MARUYAMA words: “You would not build two post offices next to each other” (1994, p.80).
Spacing is thus useful, as it contributes to avoid inhibiting effects.
Another and more subtle type of inhibiting effects which has been discovered recently is the killing by a parasite fungus of the roots of the black cherry tree of saplings of the tree growing within about 15 meters of the adult one.
As the saplings of other trees are not affected, this amounts to a ecological dispersion mechanism