Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients.
Living systems operate far from equilibrium, yet few general frameworks provide global bounds on biological transients. In high-dimensional biological networks like ecosystems, long transients arise from the separate timescales of interactions within versus among subcommunities. Here, we use tools f...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-05-01
|
| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013051 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849328083242319872 |
|---|---|
| author | William Gilpin |
| author_facet | William Gilpin |
| author_sort | William Gilpin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Living systems operate far from equilibrium, yet few general frameworks provide global bounds on biological transients. In high-dimensional biological networks like ecosystems, long transients arise from the separate timescales of interactions within versus among subcommunities. Here, we use tools from computational complexity theory to frame equilibration in complex ecosystems as the process of solving an analogue optimization problem. We show that functional redundancies among species in an ecosystem produce difficult, ill-conditioned problems, which physically manifest as transient chaos. We find that the recent success of dimensionality reduction methods in describing ecological dynamics arises due to preconditioning, in which fast relaxation decouples from slow solving timescales. In evolutionary simulations, we show that selection for steady-state species diversity produces ill-conditioning, an effect quantifiable using scaling relations originally derived for numerical analysis of complex optimization problems. Our results demonstrate the physical toll of computational constraints on biological dynamics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a9f36021d8d145d08a8c92480df2a1b9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj-art-a9f36021d8d145d08a8c92480df2a1b92025-08-20T03:47:41ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582025-05-01215e101305110.1371/journal.pcbi.1013051Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients.William GilpinLiving systems operate far from equilibrium, yet few general frameworks provide global bounds on biological transients. In high-dimensional biological networks like ecosystems, long transients arise from the separate timescales of interactions within versus among subcommunities. Here, we use tools from computational complexity theory to frame equilibration in complex ecosystems as the process of solving an analogue optimization problem. We show that functional redundancies among species in an ecosystem produce difficult, ill-conditioned problems, which physically manifest as transient chaos. We find that the recent success of dimensionality reduction methods in describing ecological dynamics arises due to preconditioning, in which fast relaxation decouples from slow solving timescales. In evolutionary simulations, we show that selection for steady-state species diversity produces ill-conditioning, an effect quantifiable using scaling relations originally derived for numerical analysis of complex optimization problems. Our results demonstrate the physical toll of computational constraints on biological dynamics.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013051 |
| spellingShingle | William Gilpin Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. |
| title_full | Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. |
| title_fullStr | Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. |
| title_short | Optimization hardness constrains ecological transients. |
| title_sort | optimization hardness constrains ecological transients |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013051 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT williamgilpin optimizationhardnessconstrainsecologicaltransients |