Niche emergence as an autocatalytic process in the evolution of ecosystems

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submitted 84326 2 237005 document 84326 lightbox.jpg image/png 91a4a9026a7fdbd375cbf190588641a1 MD5 19088 2018-06-05 06:23:28 https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/15305/2/lightbox.jpg 15305 2 2 image/png other Thumbnails conversion from text to thumbnail_lightbox en public

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/84320 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/84320 http://eprints.org/relation/isIndexCodesVersionOf https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/document/84320 archive 353 disk0/00/01/53/05 2018-06-04 06:08:44 2021-08-27 17:30:25 2018-06-04 06:08:44 article show Gatti R.C. Fath B. 7597 0000-0001-9440-6842 Hordijk W. Kauffman S. Ulanowicz R. Niche emergence as an autocatalytic process in the evolution of ecosystems pub prog_asa Autocatalysis; Symbiosis; Niche emergence; Diversity; Autocatalytic set; Biodiversity; Ecosystem evolution The utilisation of the ecospace and the change in diversity through time has been suggested to be due to the effect of niche partitioning, as a global long-term pattern in the fossil record. However, niche partitioning, as a way to coexist, could be a limited means to share the environmental resources and condition during evolutionary time. In fact, a physical limit impedes a high partitioning without a high restriction of the niche's variables. Here, we propose that niche emergence, rather than niche partitioning, is what mostly drives ecological diversity. In particular, we view ecosystems in terms of autocatalytic sets: catalytically closed and self-sustaining reaction (or interaction) networks. We provide some examples of such ecological autocatalytic networks, how this can give rise to an expanding process of niche emergence (both in time and space), and how these networks have evolved over time (so-called evoRAFs). Furthermore, we use the autocatalytic set formalism to show that it can be expected to observe a power-law in the size distribution of extinction events in ecosystems. In short, we elaborate on our earlier argument that new species create new niches, and that biodiversity is therefore an autocatalytic process. 2018-10-07 published Elsevier 10.1016/j.jtbi.2018.05.038 84 public Journal of Theoretical Biology 454 110-117 TRUE 1095-8541 FALSE no info:eu-repo/semantics/article