Complex Earth Systems

Lynn S. Fichter and Eric PyleGeology and Environmental Science: James Madison

University

It’s the SYSTEM

It’s the SYSTEM

Plus, what does it mean for something to “naturally occur” (more ambiguity).

Yet, we might ask, “Interacting how?” “Interrelated how?” “Interdependent how?”

Are the relationships a lucky accident?

How they became Interacting, Interrelated, and Interdependent is what we are trying to determine. We cannot assume what it is our purpose to discover.

Or Teleological? Or random? Or evolutionary?

And “complex whole?” Is it complex just because it has a bunch of parts, like a car?

Or is it complex in

the way people are complex?

And is behavior important? What about a bunch of parts that have simple behavior, like a car, or a watch? Or, simple parts that have complex behavior, like the logistic systems behavior below right?

A system with complexity (like a car) is not a complex system (like Earth systems)

Systems (in the technical sense of Complex Systems Theory) is not new and has many

parents.

Cybernetics

Artificial Intelligen

ce

Self Organizati

on

Cellular automata

Genetic algorithms

Artificial Life

Self-organized criticality

Computational

modeling

Network theory

Chaos and fractal

geometry

ChaosTheory

Studies why and how the behavior of simple systems—becomes more complex and

unpredictable as the energy/information the system dissipates increases.

Xnext = rX (1-X)

System evolves to equilibrium System evolves to complexity

+ -

A classical equilibrium

system

A non-equilibrium complex system

We are educated to think about systems in a classical way; they spontaneously evolved to

equilibrium.Earth Systems do not behave this way.

But this way.

Complex SystemsTheory

ChaosTheory

Is imbedded within . . .

ChaosTheory

Vehicle “agents” interacting in high traffic at high energy/information flow.

Friction“agents” interacting along a fault

zone

Sand grain ”agents”

interacting to form ripples

and cross beds.

All these systems derive their order from the acting out of simple rules among the

agentsLocal Rules leads to Global BehaviorThe Rules can be the laws of

chemistry and physics, or biological rules, or network rules, or mathematic

rules.

Self Organizing Complex Systems are Ubiquitous

© 2012 Lynn S. Fichter

All these are systems in the same way.

(properties common to all systems, whether they be chemical, biological, economic, social, geoscience, etc.)

Chengjiang networkWhat makes a system a Complex systems is they exhibit the same universality

properties

. . . a group of agents . . .

. . . existing far from equilibrium . . .

. . . interacting through rules of +\- feedbacks . . . . . . forming evolutionary networks . . .

. . . that self organize to critical states (SOC) . . .. . . where they become sensitive dependent . . .. . . and undergo avalanche (extinction) behavior. . . . . . that follows a power law. . .

In addition:. . . they behave as strange attractors . . .

. . . with oscillating (hysteresis) behavior . . .

. . . and fractal organization (patterns within patterns within patterns).

Bard E. Abrupt climate changes over millennial time scales: climate shock. Physics Today 55, 32-37 (2002)

(link)

There are many ways of looking at the Earth as a system; they each

have their uses.But if we are not looking at them as Complex Systems in the technical sense we are missing some of the

most interesting and important properties.