'Biocomplexity' is a multidisciplinary field that examines and investigates emergent properties arising from the interaction of multiple biological agents, phenomena, and systems, which may range in spatiotemporal scales, biological relationships,interactions and levels from molecules to ecosystems. Research in this area investigates the nonlinear or chaotic dynamics, unpredictable behavior, self-organization, and adaptation of living systems, aware that biological systems can display characteristics that cannot be understood through the study of individual properties alone.
Biocomplexity sheds light on the interconnectedness of life, recognizing that the behavior of biological entities emerges from the intricate interplay of countless biotic and abiotic factors. This understanding enables us to grasp how living systems can exhibit properties that go beyond the mere sum of their elements, opening up new possibilities for addressing real-world challenges in diverse fields such as medicine, ecology, and biotechnology.
To answer questions about system resilience, self-organization and adaptation, new modelling approaches have been developed and researchers are transitioning to more quantitative methods in order to better understand and analyze complex human and natural systems. These approaches focus on questions about system properties and interactions that create self-organizing or emergent behavior, and the circumstances in which unexpected system responses may occur. Analyzing the state of these systems can provide insight into system resilience, vulnerability, and management.
Primarily as a result of funding policy changes at the American
National Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
around 2000, some researchers have begun to use the term biocomplexity in a narrower sense to denote the
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
behavioral, biological, social, chemical, and physical interactions of
living
Living or The Living may refer to:
Common meanings
*Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms
** Living species, one that is not extinct
*Personal life, the course of an individual human's life
* ...
organism
An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
s with their
environment. This relatively new subfield of biocomplexity encompasses other domains such as
biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
and
ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
.
See also
*
Biological degeneracy
*
Complex systems
A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...
*
Evolution of complexity
*
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis (), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their Inorganic compound, inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a Synergy, synergistic and Homeostasis, s ...
*
Systems biology
Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...
*
System theory
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structur ...
References
Further reading
Biological Informatics Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. via
archive.org
*
*
*
External links
The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexityvia archive.org
Ecology terminology
Emergence