Towards a non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory of ecosystem assembly and development
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| Title: | Towards a non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory of ecosystem assembly and development |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Cook, Jacob |
| Committee Members: | Endres, Robert; Pawar, Samraat |
| Summary: | Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has had a significant historic influence on the development of theoretical ecology, even informing the very concept of an ecosystem. Much of this influence has manifested as proposed extremal principles. These principles hold that systems will tend to maximise certain thermodynamic quantities, subject to the other constraints they operate under. A particularly notable extremal principle is the maximum entropy production principle (MaxEPP); that systems maximise their rate of entropy production. However, these principles are not robustly based in physical theory, and suffer from treating complex ecosystems in an extremely coarse manner. To address this gap, this thesis derives a limited but physically justified extremal principle, as well as carrying out a detailed investigation of the impact of non-equilibrium thermodynamic constraints on the assembly of microbial communities. The extremal principle we obtain pertains to the switching between states in simple bistable systems, with switching paths that generate more entropy being favoured. Our detailed investigation into microbial communities involved developing a novel thermodynamic microbial community model, using which we found the rate of ecosystem development to be set by the availability of free-energy. Further investigation was carried out using this model, demonstrating the way that trade-offs emerging from fundamental thermodynamic constraints impact the dynamics of assembling microbial communities. Taken together our results demonstrate that theory can be developed from non-equilibrium thermodynamics, that is both ecologically relevant and physically well grounded. We find that broad extremal principles are unlikely to be obtained, absent significant advances in the field of stochastic thermodynamics, limiting their applicability to ecology. However, we find that detailed consideration of the non-equilibrium thermodynamic mechanisms that impact microbial communities can broaden our understanding of their assembly and functioning. |
| URL: | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.853725 |
| Database: | OpenDissertations |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ddu DbLabel: OpenDissertations An: ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.853725 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Dissertation/ Thesis PubTypeId: dissertation PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Towards a non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory of ecosystem assembly and development – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Cook%2C+Jacob%22">Cook, Jacob</searchLink> – Name: Author Label: Committee Members Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Endres%2C+Robert%22">Endres, Robert</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Pawar%2C+Samraat%22">Pawar, Samraat</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Summary Group: Ab Data: Non-equilibrium thermodynamics has had a significant historic influence on the development of theoretical ecology, even informing the very concept of an ecosystem. Much of this influence has manifested as proposed extremal principles. These principles hold that systems will tend to maximise certain thermodynamic quantities, subject to the other constraints they operate under. A particularly notable extremal principle is the maximum entropy production principle (MaxEPP); that systems maximise their rate of entropy production. However, these principles are not robustly based in physical theory, and suffer from treating complex ecosystems in an extremely coarse manner. To address this gap, this thesis derives a limited but physically justified extremal principle, as well as carrying out a detailed investigation of the impact of non-equilibrium thermodynamic constraints on the assembly of microbial communities. The extremal principle we obtain pertains to the switching between states in simple bistable systems, with switching paths that generate more entropy being favoured. Our detailed investigation into microbial communities involved developing a novel thermodynamic microbial community model, using which we found the rate of ecosystem development to be set by the availability of free-energy. Further investigation was carried out using this model, demonstrating the way that trade-offs emerging from fundamental thermodynamic constraints impact the dynamics of assembling microbial communities. Taken together our results demonstrate that theory can be developed from non-equilibrium thermodynamics, that is both ecologically relevant and physically well grounded. We find that broad extremal principles are unlikely to be obtained, absent significant advances in the field of stochastic thermodynamics, limiting their applicability to ecology. However, we find that detailed consideration of the non-equilibrium thermodynamic mechanisms that impact microbial communities can broaden our understanding of their assembly and functioning. – Name: URL Label: URL Group: URL Data: <link linkTarget="URL" linkTerm="https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.853725" linkWindow="_blank">https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.853725</link> |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ddu&AN=ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.853725 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Titles: – TitleFull: Towards a non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory of ecosystem assembly and development Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Cook, Jacob IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2022 |
| ResultId | 1 |
