The Importance of Incorporating Planktonic Temporal Strategies in Marine Ecosystem Models

Previous research using non-equilibrium thermodynamics has demonstrated that evolution of temporal strategies by planktonic communities, such as circadian rhythms, resource storage and dormancy, can improve resource acquisition and energy dissipation over communities that lack such strategies. Indeed, we have postulated that the difference between biotic and abiotic systems is the ability of the former to utilize information to increase energy dissipation over time by avoiding the steepest descent trajectory down a potential energy surface that abiotic systems follow. Recently, we have been developing new models using trait-based approaches that specifically incorporate temporal strategies, such as time varying maximum growth rate, into 1D estuarine and ocean circulation models to investigate the nature of food web structures that can recapitulate previous results without the need for formal optimization. That is, optimal thermodynamic solutions emerge from natural selection in trait-based models. We will present results from our new trait-based modeling work that directly incorporates temporal strategies that are typically not considered in most marine ecosystem models. We propose that not including temporal strategies in marine ecosystem models is akin to allowing super organisms to exist in trait-based models.