The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Tipping points in complex coupled life-environment systems

Tipping points in complex coupled life-environment systems
Tipping points in complex coupled life-environment systems
Simple models of complex phenomena provide powerful insights and suggest low-level mechanistic descriptions. The Earth system arises from the interaction of subsystems with multi-scale temporal and spatial variability; from the microbial to continental scales, operating over the course of days to geological time. System-level homeostasis has been demonstrated in a number of conceptual, artificial life, models which share the advantage of a thorough and transparent analysis. We reintroduce a general model for a coupled life-environment model, concentrating on a minimal set of assumptions, and explore the consequences of interaction between simple life elements and their shared, multidimensional environment. In particular stability, criticality and transitions are of great relevance to understanding the history, and future of the Earth system. The model is shown to share salient features with other abstract systems such as Ashby's Homeostat and Watson and Lovelock's Daisyworld. Our generic description is free to explore high-dimensional, complex environments, and in doing so we show that even a small increase in the environmental complexity gives rise to very complex attractor landscapes which require a much richer conception of critical transitions and hysteresis
Weaver, Iain S.
07d26f51-efdd-442b-8504-3c86b19e6106
Dyke, James G.
e2cc1b09-ae44-4525-88ed-87ee08baad2c
Weaver, Iain S.
07d26f51-efdd-442b-8504-3c86b19e6106
Dyke, James G.
e2cc1b09-ae44-4525-88ed-87ee08baad2c

Weaver, Iain S. and Dyke, James G. (2013) Tipping points in complex coupled life-environment systems. 12th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2013), Taormina, Italy. 02 - 06 Sep 2013.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Simple models of complex phenomena provide powerful insights and suggest low-level mechanistic descriptions. The Earth system arises from the interaction of subsystems with multi-scale temporal and spatial variability; from the microbial to continental scales, operating over the course of days to geological time. System-level homeostasis has been demonstrated in a number of conceptual, artificial life, models which share the advantage of a thorough and transparent analysis. We reintroduce a general model for a coupled life-environment model, concentrating on a minimal set of assumptions, and explore the consequences of interaction between simple life elements and their shared, multidimensional environment. In particular stability, criticality and transitions are of great relevance to understanding the history, and future of the Earth system. The model is shown to share salient features with other abstract systems such as Ashby's Homeostat and Watson and Lovelock's Daisyworld. Our generic description is free to explore high-dimensional, complex environments, and in doing so we show that even a small increase in the environmental complexity gives rise to very complex attractor landscapes which require a much richer conception of critical transitions and hysteresis

Text
2013_daisystat_transitions.pdf - Author's Original
Download (1MB)

More information

Published date: 2 September 2013
Venue - Dates: 12th European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2013), Taormina, Italy, 2013-09-02 - 2013-09-06
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 354212
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/354212
PURE UUID: 1cdf9825-3077-48d6-b029-14afdff18352
ORCID for James G. Dyke: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6779-1682

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Jul 2013 10:35
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 14:15

Export record

Contributors

Author: Iain S. Weaver
Author: James G. Dyke ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×