The derivation of ecological relationships from physical and chemical principles

Organic reaction networks are formalized by representing chemical species as points in a space and representing reactions by connectivity rules. Using the generalized network, the behavior of the system is investigated under conditions of electronically exciting input and output to a thermal reservoir. Under steady-state conditions the system undergoes material cycles of the type shown by the major ecological cycles. A consideration of the attractor nature of the equilibrium state of the system leads to the conclusion that the energetically lowest-lying molecules must be inputs into the material cycles. Certain general features of the ecological system are thus shown to follow from the physical and chemical properties of an organic reaction network.