Stochastic thermodynamics of ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper applies stochastic thermodynamics to ecosystems, modeling species populations as stochastic variables and analyzing mass, energy, and entropy fluxes, revealing fundamental thermodynamic relations in ecological dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic approach to ecosystem thermodynamics, deriving entropy production and fluxes, and linking population dynamics with thermodynamic principles.

Findings

Entropy production rate is derived for ecosystems with unidirectional biomass exchanges.

Energy flux across the ecosystem is proportional to entropy flux to the environment.

Average population dynamics follow deterministic equations.

Abstract

We investigate the thermodynamics as well as the population dynamics of ecosystems based on a stochastic approach in which the number of individuals of the several species of the ecosystem are treated as stochastic variables. The several species are connected by feeding relationships that are understood as unidirectional processes in which a certain amount of biomass is exchanged between species. We show that the equations for the averages in the numbers of individuals are that given by the deterministic approach. We determine the fluxes of mass, energy, and entropy as well as the rate of the entropy production. This last quantity, which has a central role in the present stochastic approach, is obtained by a formula appropriate for unidirectional transitions. The flux of energy across the ecosystem is shown to be proportional to the flux of entropy to the environment.