Thermodynamic stability of ecosystems
Abstract
The dynamics and stability of ecosystems is studied from the perspective of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Species, through their biotic and abiotic interactions, are considered as units of entropy production and exchange in an open thermodynamic system. Under the condition of constant external constraints, and within the framework of the classical theory of irreversible thermodynamics, such a system will naturally evolve toward a stable thermodynamic stationary state in which the production of entropy within the ecosystem is at a local minimum value. It is shown that the procurement of the stationary state leads to equations for the steady state population dynamics of interacting species, more general than those of Lotka-Volterra, and the second law of thermodynamics leads to conditions on the parameters of the community interaction matrix guaranteeing ecosystem stability. For perturbed ecosystems or ecosystems far from equilibrium, but under constant external constraints, it is suggested that more general results from non-linear irreversible thermodynamics can be used to study the evolution toward stability.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004APS..MAR.P9015M