2020/09/03 by Joseph J. Vallino, Ioannis Tsakalakis · 6 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Abiotic component #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Diel vertical migration #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #Entropy (arrow of time) #Entropy production #Food chain #Food web #New production #Phytoplankton #Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis #q-bio.PE
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/e22111249
published in Entropy 22(11), 1249 (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) · 39 pp. including Supplementary Material, 6 Figures
arxiv created 2020/09/03 · openalex created_date 2020/09/11 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/03 · arxiv updated 2020/11/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We develop a trait-based model founded on the hypothesis that biological systems evolve and organize to maximize entropy production by dissipating chemical and electromagnetic free energy over longer time scales than abiotic processes by implementing temporal strategies. A marine food web consisting of phytoplankton, bacteria, and consumer functional groups is used to explore how temporal strategies, or the lack thereof, change entropy production in a shallow pond that receives a continuous flow of reduced organic carbon plus inorganic nitrogen and illumination from solar radiation with diel and seasonal dynamics. Results show that a temporal strategy that employs an explicit circadian clock produces more entropy than a passive strategy that uses internal carbon storage or a balanced growth strategy that requires phytoplankton to grow with fixed stoichiometry. When the community is forced to operate at high specific growth rates near 2 d−1, the optimization-guided model selects for phytoplankton ecotypes that exhibit complementary for winter versus summer environmental conditions to increase entropy production. We also present a new type of trait-based modeling where trait values are determined by maximizing entropy production rather than by random selection.