Statistical Mechanics of Ecosystem Assembly

Statistical mechanics of ecosystem assembly.

We introduce a toy model of ecosystem assembly for which we are able to map out all assembly pathways generated by external invasions. The model allows us to display the whole phase space in the form of an assembly graph whose nodes are communities of species and whose directed links are transitions between them induced by invasions. We characterize the process as a finite Markov chain and prov...

The statistical mechanics of community assembly

Theoretically, communities at or near their equilibrium species number resist 34 entry of new species. Such ‘biotic resistance’ recently has been questioned because of successful 35 entry of alien species into diverse natural communities. Data on 10,409 naturalizations of 5350 36 plant species over 16 sites dispersed globally show exponential distributions for both species over 37 sites and sit...

Statistical mechanics of integral membrane protein assembly.

During the synthesis of integral membrane proteins (IMPs), the hydrophobic amino acids of the polypeptide sequence are partitioned mostly into the membrane interior and hydrophilic amino acids mostly into the aqueous exterior. Using a many-body statistical mechanics model, we analyze the minimum free energy state of polypeptide sequences partitioned into α-helical transmembrane (TM) segments an...

The statistical mechanics of community assembly and species distribution.

• Theoretically, communities at or near their equilibrium species number resist entry of new species. Such 'biotic resistance' recently has been questioned because of successful entry of alien species into diverse natural communities. • Data on 10,409 naturalizations of 5350 plant species over 16 sites dispersed globally show exponential distributions both for species over sites and for sites o...

Statistical Mechanics