The evolution of ecosystem ascendency in a complex systems based model
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Brinck, KT
Jensen, HJJ
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
General patterns in ecosystem development can shed light on driving forces behind ecosystem formation and recovery and have been of long interest. In recent years, the need for integrative and process oriented approaches to capture ecosystem growth, development and organisation, as well as the scope of information theory as a descriptive tool has been addressed from various sides. However data collection of ecological network flows is difficult and tedious and comprehensive models are lacking. We use a hierarchical version of the Tangled Nature Model of evolutionary ecology to study the relationship between structure, flow and organisation in model ecosystems, their development over evolutionary time scales and their relation to ecosystem stability. Our findings support the validity of ecosystem ascendency as a meaningful measure of ecosystem organisation, which increases over evolutionary time scales and significantly drops during periods of disturbance. The results suggest a general trend towards both higher integrity and increased stability driven by functional and structural ecosystem coadaptation.
Date Issued
2017-06-10
Date Acceptance
2017-06-09
Citation
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2017, 428, pp.18-25
ISSN
1095-8541
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
18
End Page
25
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Theoretical Biology
Volume
428
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Subjects
Ascendency
Development
Ecological networks
Ecosystem organisation
Evolution
Modelling
Evolutionary Biology
01 Mathematical Sciences
06 Biological Sciences
08 Information And Computing Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United Kingdom