Modeling and specification of the aquatic ecological emergence using genetic programming
Nelson Fernandez, José Aguilar, Gustavo Marcano, Oswaldo Terán, Carlos Gershenson · 2014
A major endeavor of ecology is to understand the emergence of complexity. This task requires the integration of knowledge and theories, moving from physical to social sciences. We use genetic programming to develop mathematical relationships between ecological emergence and variables such as self-organization, homeostasis, autopoiesis and complexity. These variables were initially formalized on the basis of information theory. The emergence models found were applied and tested with a case study involving an arctic lake and a tropical lake. In these lakes, the variables of limiting nutrients, biomass and physico-chemical components were taken into account for the automated generation of the model equations. The results show that the model follows in the dynamics of the aquatic ecological components selected accurately. In this context, ecological emergence can be calculated and studied.