Scaling in a Multispecies Network Model Ecosystem

Ricard V. Solé, David Alonso and Alan McKane

Abstract: A new model ecosystem consisting of many interacting species is introduced. The species are connected through a random matrix with a given connectivity . It is shown that the system is organized close to a boundary of marginal stability in such a way that fluctuations follow power law distributions both in species abundance and their lifetimes for some slow-driving (immigration) regime. The connectivity and the number of species are linked through a scaling relation which is the one observed in real ecosystems. These results suggest that the basic macroscopic features of real, species-rich ecologies might be linked with a critical state. A natural link between lognormal and power law distributions of species abundances is suggested.

Keywords: Ecosystems; scaling; power laws (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-evo
Date: Written 1999-08
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:99-08-060

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