2013/05/22 by Nelson Fernández, Nelson Fernandez, Fernandez, Nelson +2
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE) #Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis #nlin.AO #q-bio.PE
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1305.5413
6 pages, to be published in Proceedings of the CCBCOL 2013, 2nd Colombian Computational Biology Congress, Springer
arxiv created 2013/05/22 · openalex publication_date 2013/05/22 · arxiv updated 2013/05/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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.