3 research outputs found
Measuring Complexity in an Aquatic Ecosystem
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.Comment: 6 pages, to be published in Proceedings of the CCBCOL 2013, 2nd
Colombian Computational Biology Congress, Springe