Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model

We develop a trait-based model founded on the hypothesis that biological systems evolve and organize to maximize entropy production by dissipating chemical and electromagnetic free energy over longer time scales than abiotic processes by implementing temporal strategies. A marine food web consisting...

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Main Authors: Joseph J. Vallino, Ioannis Tsakalakis
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/11/1249
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spelling doaj-079cc86eaad845e1816af2f5e8c59f282020-11-25T04:05:30ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002020-11-01221249124910.3390/e22111249Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web ModelJoseph J. Vallino0Ioannis Tsakalakis1Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USAMarine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USAWe develop a trait-based model founded on the hypothesis that biological systems evolve and organize to maximize entropy production by dissipating chemical and electromagnetic free energy over longer time scales than abiotic processes by implementing temporal strategies. A marine food web consisting of phytoplankton, bacteria, and consumer functional groups is used to explore how temporal strategies, or the lack thereof, change entropy production in a shallow pond that receives a continuous flow of reduced organic carbon plus inorganic nitrogen and illumination from solar radiation with diel and seasonal dynamics. Results show that a temporal strategy that employs an explicit circadian clock produces more entropy than a passive strategy that uses internal carbon storage or a balanced growth strategy that requires phytoplankton to grow with fixed stoichiometry. When the community is forced to operate at high specific growth rates near 2 d<sup>−1</sup>, the optimization-guided model selects for phytoplankton ecotypes that exhibit complementary for winter versus summer environmental conditions to increase entropy production. We also present a new type of trait-based modeling where trait values are determined by maximizing entropy production rather than by random selection.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/11/1249maximum entropy productiontrait-based modelingtemporal strategycircadian rhythmbiogeochemistryfood web model
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Joseph J. Vallino
Ioannis Tsakalakis
spellingShingle Joseph J. Vallino
Ioannis Tsakalakis
Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
Entropy
maximum entropy production
trait-based modeling
temporal strategy
circadian rhythm
biogeochemistry
food web model
author_facet Joseph J. Vallino
Ioannis Tsakalakis
author_sort Joseph J. Vallino
title Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
title_short Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
title_full Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
title_fullStr Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
title_full_unstemmed Phytoplankton Temporal Strategies Increase Entropy Production in a Marine Food Web Model
title_sort phytoplankton temporal strategies increase entropy production in a marine food web model
publisher MDPI AG
series Entropy
issn 1099-4300
publishDate 2020-11-01
description We develop a trait-based model founded on the hypothesis that biological systems evolve and organize to maximize entropy production by dissipating chemical and electromagnetic free energy over longer time scales than abiotic processes by implementing temporal strategies. A marine food web consisting of phytoplankton, bacteria, and consumer functional groups is used to explore how temporal strategies, or the lack thereof, change entropy production in a shallow pond that receives a continuous flow of reduced organic carbon plus inorganic nitrogen and illumination from solar radiation with diel and seasonal dynamics. Results show that a temporal strategy that employs an explicit circadian clock produces more entropy than a passive strategy that uses internal carbon storage or a balanced growth strategy that requires phytoplankton to grow with fixed stoichiometry. When the community is forced to operate at high specific growth rates near 2 d<sup>−1</sup>, the optimization-guided model selects for phytoplankton ecotypes that exhibit complementary for winter versus summer environmental conditions to increase entropy production. We also present a new type of trait-based modeling where trait values are determined by maximizing entropy production rather than by random selection.
topic maximum entropy production
trait-based modeling
temporal strategy
circadian rhythm
biogeochemistry
food web model
url https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/11/1249
work_keys_str_mv AT josephjvallino phytoplanktontemporalstrategiesincreaseentropyproductioninamarinefoodwebmodel
AT ioannistsakalakis phytoplanktontemporalstrategiesincreaseentropyproductioninamarinefoodwebmodel
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