Abstract—
The paper presents a concept of the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems, their disorganization when impacted by anthropogenic pollution, and evolutionary development after the effect of the toxicants decreased. The general laws of the ecosystem transformations are explained from the viewpoint of the ecological theory and the mechanism of thermodynamic ordering of matter in living systems. The evolutionary development of ecosystems after weakening of induced anthropogenic perturbations is demonstrated to be consistent with the trends of ecosystem successions: from a natural stage through critical one to a stable modification. The latter is characterized by a higher ordering of the matter and a decrease in the entropy. Ecosystems are not able to return to their natural state because they evolved through a critical state to a new stable one, which is characterized by highly ordered state of the matter.
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Translated by E. Kurdyukov
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Moiseenko, T.I. Evolution of Ecosystems under an Anthropogenic Load: From Disorganization to Self-Organization. Geochem. Int. 58, 1083–1091 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702920100110
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702920100110