Information theory in ecosystems: the use of ascendency and overhead

Abstract

Ecosystems grow and develop subjected to thermodynamic constraints. Emergent properties can measure the ecosystem maturity. These properties do not do causal work but they influence the system development and they can be shown as goal functions that indicate the health of ecosystems. In this paper, two goal functions are detailed: ascendency and overhead. The origin of them is the Information Theory. Ascendency shows the degree of system order while overhead quantifies the disorder component. Although, systems tend to order increasing ascendency, a certain disorder degree is indispensable to sustain the order. Ascendency and overhead are described mathematically and the calculations are exemplified through a hypothetical ecosystem.