A Non-equilibrium Thermodynamic Framework for the Dynamics and Stability of Ecosystems

Abstract

The population dynamics and stability of ecosystems of interacting species is studied from the perspective of non-equilibrium thermodynamics by assuming that species, through their biotic and abiotic interactions, are units of entropy production and exchange in an open thermodynamic system with constant external constraints. Within the context of the linear theory of irreversible thermodynamics, such a system will naturally evolve towards a stable stationary state in which the production of entropy within the ecosystem is at a local minimum value. It is shown that this extremal condition leads to equations for the stationary (steady) state population dynamics of interacting species, more general than those of Lotka-Volterra, and to conditions on the parameters of the community interaction matrix guaranteeing ecosystem stability. The paradoxical stability of real complex ecosystems thus has a simple explanation within the proposed framework. Furthermore, it is shown that the second law of thermodynamics constrains the inter- and intra-species interaction coefficients in the sense of maintaining stability during evolution from one stationary state to another. A firm connection is thus established between the second law of thermodynamics and natural selection.