Measuring Complexity in an Aquatic Ecosystem

• Main Authors: Fernandez, Nelson, Gershenson, Carlos
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2013
• Subjects: Populations and Evolution q-bio.PE; Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems nlin.AO; FOS Biological sciences; FOS Physical sciences; Arctic; Arctic Lake
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1305.5413; https://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5413

We apply formal measures of emergence, self-organization, homeostasis, autopoiesis and complexity to an aquatic ecosystem; in particular to the physiochemical component of an Arctic lake. These measures are based on information theory. Variables with an homogeneous distribution have higher values of emergence, while variables with a more heterogeneous distribution have a higher self-organization. Variables with a high complexity reflect a balance between change (emergence) and regularity/order (self-organization). In addition, homeostasis values coincide with the variation of the winter and summer seasons. Autopoiesis values show a higher degree of independence of biological components over their environment. Our approach shows how the ecological dynamics can be described in terms of information. : 6 pages, to be published in Proceedings of the CCBCOL 2013, 2nd Colombian Computational Biology Congress, Springer