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Marine Ecosystems as Complex Adaptive Systems: Emergent Patterns, Critical Transitions, and Public Goods

  • 20th Anniversary Paper
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Abstract

Complex adaptive systems provide a unified framework for explaining ecosystem phenomena. In the past 20 years, complex adaptive systems have been sharpened from an abstract concept into a series of tools that can be used to solve concrete problems. These advances have been led by the development of new techniques for coupling ecological and evolutionary dynamics, for integrating dynamics across multiple scales of organization, and for using data to infer the complex interactions among different components of ecological systems. Focusing on the development and usage of these new methods, we discuss how they have led to an improved understanding of three universal features of complex adaptive systems, emergent patterns; tip** points and critical phenomena; and cooperative behavior. We restrict our attention primarily to marine ecosystems, which provide numerous successful examples of the application of complex adaptive systems. Many of these are currently undergoing dramatic changes due to anthropogenic perturbations, and we take the opportunity to discuss how complex adaptive systems can be used to improve the management of public goods and to better preserve critical ecosystem services.

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Acknowledgements

Simon Levin acknowledges funding from the NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity Grant OCE-1046001, NSF Grant GEO-1211972, NSF Grant OCE-1426746, ARO Grant W911NF-11-1-0385, ARO Grant W911NF-14-1-0431 and by the Nordforsk-funded project Green Growth Based on Marine Resource: Ecological and Socio-Economic Constraints (GreenMAR). George Hagstrom acknowledges funding from NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity Grant OCE-1046001, ARO Grant W911NF-14-1-0431, and ARO Grant W911NF-11-1-0385.

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  1. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Guyot Hall, Princeton, New York, 08544, USA

    George I. Hagstrom & Simon A. Levin

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  1. George I. Hagstrom
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  2. Simon A. Levin
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Correspondence to George I. Hagstrom.

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GIH conceived study, performed research, and wrote the paper. SAL conceived study, performed research, and wrote the paper.

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Hagstrom, G.I., Levin, S.A. Marine Ecosystems as Complex Adaptive Systems: Emergent Patterns, Critical Transitions, and Public Goods. Ecosystems 20, 458–476 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-017-0114-3

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