In hmolscience, Vladimir Stanchinsky (c.1887-c.1947), or V. V. Stanchinsky, was a Russian scientist noted, in ecological thermodynamics, for his 1920s and 1930s work food chain energetics, some of which he theorized about in terms of thermodynamics.
Overview
In the 1920s, Stanchinsky, inspired by the work of Russian physical geologist Vladimir Vernadsky, posited that the quantity of living matter in the biosphere depends on the amount of solar energy that is transformed by natural communities at different trophic (i.e. food chain) levels, and on this basis studied “dynamic equilibrium” of natural communities by invoking the second law to explain decreasing biomass of the higher groups on the “trophic ladder”, wherein each successive rung on the trophic ladder has less energy, as it depends on the lower rungs for its energy supply in the form of food, but cannot appropriate it all, or something to this effect.
Stanchinsky summarized his views in his 1927 book Variability of Organisms and its Importance for Evolution.
In 1930 to 1937, Stanchinsky, with co-authors I.V. Ivlev and G.G. Winberg, measured and published results of energy lost at each trophic level. Raymond Lindeman, supposedly, later learned of these results. [2]
Other
Other authors to have employed "food chain thermodynamics" models include Paul Colinvaux and Paul Ehrlich, and in a unique way Vernadsky who outlined a blurry type of food chain picture of free energy, so to speak.
References
1. (a) Stanchinsky, Vladimir. (1927). Variability of Organisms and its Importance for Evolution. Smolensky.
(b) Ascher, William. (2001). Guide to Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy (pg. 66). Duke University Press.
2. Shadrin, Nickolai. (2013). “What is the Origin of the 10 Law of Trophic Efficiency?” (ΡΊ), ResearchGate.net.
