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The Central Role of Information Theory in Ecology

In: Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks

Author

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  • Robert E. Ulanowicz

    (University of Florida, Department of Biology
    University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science)

Abstract

Information theory (IT) is predicated upon that which largely eludes physics – the absence of something. The capacity for IT to portray both presence and absence in comparable quantitative fashion makes it indispensable to ecology. IT has been applied to ecology along two separate lines: (1) it has been used to quantify the distribution of stocks and numbers of organisms and (2) it has been used to quantify the pattern of interactions of trophic processes. By and large, the first endeavor has resulted in relatively few insights into ecosystem dynamics and has generated much ambiguity and disappointment, so that most ecologists remain highly skeptical about the advisability of applying IT to ecology. By contrast, the second (and less well-known) application has shed light on the possibility that ecosystem behavior is the most palpable example of a purely natural “infodynamics” that transcends classical dynamics, but remains well within the realm of the quantifiable.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert E. Ulanowicz, 2011. "The Central Role of Information Theory in Ecology," Springer Books, in: Matthias Dehmer & Frank Emmert-Streib & Alexander Mehler (ed.), Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 153-167, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-0-8176-4904-3_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-0-8176-4904-3_7
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