The nature of ecological complexity: A protocol for building the narrative

We show that a realist view of ecology does not pay sufficient attention to the role of the observer dealing with complex systems. Complexity after Rosen [Rosen, R., 2000. Essays on Life Itself. Columbia University Press, New York, p. 257] is something that cannot be modeled. Conventional properties ascribed to complex systems are in fact prescriptions for what it takes to make a complex system yield to a model structure, to make it a simple system, albeit a complicated one. Complexity is not a material property, but turns rather on the question that is posed. It is normative to the degree that complexity arises from the lack of a paradigm, lack of an accepted set of modeling assertions. We develop a scheme for making complexity tractable. Our protocol arises from Pattee [Pattee, H., 1978. The complementarity principle in biological and social structures. J. Soc. Biol. Struct. 1, 191-200] laws and rules, Allen and Hoekstra [Allen, T.F.H., Hoekstra, T.W., 1992. Toward a Unified Ecology. University of Columbia Press, New York] scale versus type, observation protocol versus observed structure and Rosen [Rosen, R. 2000. Essays on Life Itself. Columbia University Press, New York, p. 257] essence versus realization. In a pair of cycles, one reinforces patterns of model building, and the cycle of the other deals with the changes that appear in the essence of that which is modeled. We use narrative to rise above the local constraints of models. In the end, we give an application in a salmon fishery as we build a narrative from a set of separate models.