Extending the Modern Synthesis: The evolution of ecosystems

Abstract

The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis formalizes the role of variation, heredity, differential reproduction, and mutation in population genetics. Here we explore a mathematical structure, based on the asymptotic limit theorems of communication theory, that instantiates the punctuated dynamic relations of organisms with their embedding environments, including the possibility of the transfer of heritage information between different classes of organisms. In essence, we provide something of a formal roadmap for the modernization of the Modern Synthesis, making application to both relatively rapid evolutionary punctuated equilibrium and to the conservation of ecological interactions across deep evolutionary time.