The Central Role of Information Theory in Ecology

Abstract

Information theory (IT) is predicated upon that which largely eludes physics -- the absence of something. The capacity for IT to portray both presence and absence in comparable quantitative fashion makes it indispensable to ecology. IT has been applied to ecology along two separate lines: (1) it has been used to quantify the distribution of stocks and numbers of organisms and (2) it has been used to quantify the pattern of interactions of trophic processes. By and large, the first endeavor has resulted in relatively few insights into ecosystem dynamics and has generated much ambiguity and disappointment, so that most ecologists remain highly skeptical about the advisability of applying IT to ecology. By contrast, the second (and less well-known) application has shed light on the possibility that ecosystem behavior is the most palpable example of a purely natural ``infodynamics'' that transcends classical dynamics, but remains well within the realm of the quantifiable.