Research report 2014 - Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization

Biodiversity and extinction

Authors
Stollmeier, Frank
Departments
Nichtlineare Dynamik
Summary
Today's biodiversity is the result of a long-lasting process of origination and extinction of species. The history of this process can be explored by fossil databases. A new mathematical model for the network of dependencies between species helps to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of this process. For instance, the model can explain in which circumstances the extinction of a single species may initiate a mass extinction, and why the growth of the biodiversity on land and in the sea has been qualitatively different from each other.

For the full text, see the German version.

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