The canonical problem

How is homeostasis in ecosystems maintained and when is it lost? This is the canonical problem in the study of ecological systems and more generally of all biological systems. This website is dedicated to the exploration of the issues related to this fundamental issue -- and a few digressions. 

Familiarity with a few related theories and perspectives are helpful in understanding ecosystem homeostasis. These ideas are currently popularised under the broad banner of "complex adaptive hierarchical systems"; however, their roots are firmly grounded in general systems theory. Links to some of my (biased) perspectives on these ideas can be found in the sidebar.

Many of the ideas presented are dated as the applied side has been rather overwhelming since working on my day job. I will get to updating the ideas soon, I promise. Fortunately, (and sadly) advancement in the field has been slow. 

Some background

I am a so-called "ecosystem" ecologist.  I have dabbled in landscape, community and population ecology of freshwater and  marine ecosystems. I am particularly interested in how thermodynamics, complexity and nonlinear dynamical systems theory can inform ecology.

Currently, I work for Fisheries and Oceans Canada as a Research Scientist/Oceanographer and am responsible for the mandate of the snow crab  (Chionocetes oplio) on the Scotian Shelf of Atlantic Canada. Search this site for access to this grey literature.

Enjoy your visit,

Jae S. Choi

Bedford Institute of Oceanography

1 Challenger Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Y 4A2

Email: choi.jae.seok_@_gmail _dot_com {remove the underscores}