Abstract
Complex systems science has contributed to our understanding of ecology in important areas such as food webs, patch dynamics and population fluctuations. This has been achieved through the use of simple measures that can capture the difference between order and disorder and simple models with local interactions that can generate surprising behaviour at larger scales. However, close examination reveals that commonly applied definitions of complexity fail to accommodate some key features of ecological systems, a fact that will limit the contribution of complex systems science to ecology. We highlight these features of ecological complexity—such as diversity, cross-scale interactions, memory and environmental variability—that continue to challenge classical complex systems science. Further advances in these areas will be necessary before complex systems science can be widely applied to understand the dynamics of ecological systems.
Highlights
Since seminal publications on the subject [1,2], the study of “ecological complexity” has gained momentum
We show how complex systems science (CSS) has contributed to three important research areas in ecology, namely, food webs, patch dynamics, and population fluctuations
Deterministic chaos is a classical example of how these concepts can be entwined, and it has led to a paradigm shift in thinking about how the very sensitive dependence on initial conditions often causes long-term unpredictability in system behavior or attributes, including ecological systems
Summary
Since seminal publications on the subject [1,2], the study of “ecological complexity” has gained momentum. Examples of this trend can be found in recent books [3], national research efforts We show how CSS has contributed to three important research areas in ecology, namely, food webs, patch dynamics, and population fluctuations. In reviewing these examples, we point out the limitations of the existing definitions of ecological complexity derived from CSS and suggest new directions for improved integration between CSS and ecology
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