Non-equilibrium thermodynamics of ecosystems: Entropic analysis of stability and diversity

The aim of the paper is first to develop a non-equilibrium thermodynamic model of a multi-species ecosystem. The key to this is the expression of entropy-production (change of entropy) which is equivalent to a well-known expression of Liapunov function used in many problems of ecological and chemical reaction systems. On the basis of the expression of entropy-production we have made an entropic (thermodynamic) analysis of ecological stability (both global and local) including the study of interrelation between ecological diversity and stability. As illustrative examples we have discussed some basic problems of classical and generalized Lotka–Volterra systems.