RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Exploring the spontaneous contribution of Claude E. Shannon to eco-evolutionary theory
A1 Fernández-Palacios, José María
K1 Ecosystem ecology
K1 Ecological state equation
K1 Information theory
K1 Interdisciplinary research
K1 Joint events
K1 Biodiversity
K1 Ecología de ecosistemas
K1 Ecuación de estado ecológica
K1 Teoría de la información
K1 Investigación interdisciplinaria
K1 Biodiversidad
AB This article performs an analysis of the article in which Claude E. Shannon proposed his now famous Hmeasure of information amount, by finding that four crucial traits analyzed by Shannon in regard to themeaning of H in information theory (i.e.: (a) introduction of a constant ad hoc – k – in order to achievea formal connection between the statistical dimension of H and a given system of measurement units;(b) redundancy measurement; (c) joint events; and (d) conditional information) have strong theoreticalconnections with several important and well-known ecological phenomena (i.e.: (a ) extensive measurementof ecological entropy in quasi-physical units; (b ) theoretical meaning and successional behaviorof redundancy; (c ) competitive exclusion; and (d ) ecological niche resilience, respectively). This set ofcorresponding connections (a, b, c, d, vs. a  , b  , c  , d ) has not been reported in the literature ever before,and it is fully understandable from the ecological viewpoint, despite the fact that the proposal fromShannon is previous and fully independent in comparison with any posterior attempt to establish a connectionbetween ecology, physics and information theory. So, in practice, Shannon was also investigatingin ecology and evolutionary biology, despite he was neither an ecologist nor an evolutionary biologist.In summary, our set of results: (i) implies that Shannon was an spontaneous ecologist, or at least anunwitting founder of ecological science such that, after Shannon, every ecologist of ecosystems can thusbe viewed as a sort of “computer technician of nature”; (ii) highlights the fruitfulness of thinking aboutnatural history in interdisciplinary terms; and (iii) expands the theoretical justification for applying Has a key indicator to build reliable models that are coherent with the principles of ecology, evolutionarybiology, information theory and physics.
PB Elsevier BV
YR 2016
FD 2016
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18606
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18606
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 13-nov-2024