Criticality and scaling in evolutionary ecology

Fluctuations in ecological systems are known to involve a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, often displaying self-similar (fractal) properties. Recent theoretical approaches are trying to shed light on the nature of these complex dynamics. The results suggest that complexity in ecology and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 1999-04, Vol.14 (4), p.156-160
Main Authors: Solé, Ricard V., Manrubia, Susanna C., Benton, Michael, Kauffman, Stuart, Bak, Per
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1/f-noise
Biological and medical sciences
Biological evolution
criticality
extinction
fractals
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution
self-organization
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Summary:Fluctuations in ecological systems are known to involve a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, often displaying self-similar (fractal) properties. Recent theoretical approaches are trying to shed light on the nature of these complex dynamics. The results suggest that complexity in ecology and evolution comes from the network-like structure of multispecies communities that are close to instability. If true, these ideas might change our understanding of how complexity emerges in the biosphere and how macroevolutionary events could be decoupled from microevolutionary ones.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/S0169-5347(98)01518-3