Ecosystems ecology was the dominating branch within the field of ecology during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1970s ecosystem ecology was to a large extent replaced by the emerging so called “popcom” ecology, often described as a major paradigm shift in ecology from a holistic approach to a reductionistic paradigm. It is said that more than 90% of the active ecologist switched paradigm during this period. However, during the 1980s and 1990s several new concepts emerged among the remaining ecosystem ecologist and a few new scientist, often coming to the field with other backgrounds than ecology. This effort has the last years produced a more complete theory of what has been called the new systems ecology.
In this presentation the concept of emergy is compared to a selection of the other new concepts within systems ecology. The presentation aims to sum up earlier published comparisons and to add a few new angles to those.