Thermodynamics of irreversible processes and quantum field theory: An interplay for the understanding of ecosystem dynamics

Ecological modelling has not yet received from basic “hard” sciences, like conventional physics and chemistry, an adequate conceptual support. Mechanistic simulation techniques are very far from achieving a satisfactory understanding of ecosystem dynamics. In this paper we discuss how to build a bridge between basic sciences and ecodynamics, able to justify the emergence of novelties. It is shown that two important theoretical frameworks, thermodynamics of irreversible processes and quantum field theory, exhibit significant convergences on a number of points. They provide a rationale for the appearance of different phases of the same system, for the onset of non-linear self-consistent dynamics able to give rise to domains extended in space and evolving in time in an irreversible way, for the appearance of self-organization which is the main feature of life. A possible dynamical implementation of the thermodynamic concept of negentropy is suggested. The emergence of autocatalytic features is discussed.