6th Workshop, Villefranche-sur-Mer, 30 May-1 June, 2007

back to Workshop 06 overview A working group discussed non-linearities and feedbacks in marine ecosystems. Non-linearities are the rule and not the exception in ecology and biogeochemistry: chemical kinetics; Michaelis-Menten uptake kinetics, Monod growth rates, grazing and aggregation processes provide but a few examples. It is well known that nonlinear systems can show oscillations and chaotic behaviour. Intrinsic chaos (not enforced by external processes) seems to be rare in ecosystems. Many feedbacks of marine ecosystems to climate change are known. Their quantification is often difficult due to the complexity of ecosystems (many species, spatial and time variations of species assemblages) and the large number of non-linear processes. Powerpoint file to download pdf file to download