From population dynamics to ecoinformatics: Ecosystems as multilevel information processing systems

In classical ecological theory the concept population plays a central role. Most models are formulated in terms of changes in the number/biomass/fraction of interacting populations. In the passed 30 years slowly alternative viewpoints have been developed. In this paper we trace some of these alternative developments which lead to viewing ecosystems in terms of local multilevel information processing and evolution. We will sketch the methodological developments, indicate some fundamental insight gained through the methodological innovations and focus our discussion on the central problem of the development and maintenance of diversity in ecosystems. We will explore the circumstances in which individual based diversity (plasticity, regulatory adaptation, intelligence) or population based diversity (speciation) develops.