Ecosystem biogeochemistry considered as a distributed metabolic network ordered by maximum entropy production

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Biogeochemistry
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Ecosystems exhibit functional stability despite species turnover.
• Biogeochemical processes are central to ecosystem function.
• Existing models often link ecosystem stability to specific species compositions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To apply the maximum entropy production principle to ecosystem biogeochemistry.
• To develop an organism-independent model for ecosystem metabolic networks.
• To investigate how ecosystems achieve stability and function through entropy production.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a distributed metabolic network model.
• Formulated an optimal control problem to maximize entropy production.
• Incorporated information storage (metagenome) for temporal averaging.
• Simulated a methanotrophic system to demonstrate the model.

Main Results:

• Ecosystem biogeochemistry can be described by maximizing entropy production over time.
• Biological systems achieve higher entropy production than abiotic systems through spatio-temporal averaging.
• Metagenomic information enables temporal maximization, allowing biological systems to outperform abiotic processes.

Conclusions:

• Ecosystems function as self-organizing molecular machines.
• Maximizing entropy production at the ecosystem level is a fundamental organizing principle.
• The proposed model offers a new perspective on ecosystem stability and function.