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The evolution of ecosystem ascendency in a complex systems based model.

Katharina Brinck1, Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen1

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Ecosystem organization, measured by ascendency, increases over evolutionary time and drops during disturbances. This suggests coadaptation drives ecosystem integrity and stability.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Systems Ecology

Background:

  • Understanding ecosystem development, formation, and recovery is crucial.
  • Integrative, process-oriented approaches and information theory are increasingly used to study ecosystem growth and organization.
  • Challenges exist in ecological network flow data collection and comprehensive modeling.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between structure, flow, and organization in model ecosystems.
  • To analyze ecosystem development over evolutionary time scales.
  • To assess the connection between ecosystem organization and stability.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a hierarchical version of the Tangled Nature Model.
  • Studied model ecosystems over evolutionary time scales.
  • Examined relationships between structure, flow, organization, and stability.

Main Results:

  • Ecosystem ascendency is a valid measure of ecosystem organization.
  • Ecosystem ascendency increases over evolutionary time scales.
  • Ascendency significantly drops during disturbance periods.

Conclusions:

  • Ecosystem coadaptation drives both functional and structural integrity.
  • There is a general trend towards increased ecosystem integrity and stability.
  • Findings support ecosystem ascendency as a key metric for organization and stability.