This paper was written by Axel Kleidon (pictured), Yadvinder Malhi, and Peter M. Cox and published in 2010. It serves as the introduction to a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences (volume 365, Issue 1545) that includes 16 articles. The authors include Kleidon, Adrian Bejan, Ralph Lorenz, and Roderick Dewar.
The abstract of this introduction states: “The coupled biosphere–atmosphere system entails a vast range of processes at different scales, from ecosystem exchange fluxes of energy, water and carbon to the processes that drive global biogeochemical cycles, atmospheric composition and, ultimately, the planetary energy balance. These processes are generally complex with numerous interactions and feedbacks, and they are irreversible in their nature, thereby producing entropy. The proposed principle of maximum entropy production (MEP), based on statistical mechanics and information theory, states that thermodynamic processes far from thermodynamic equilibrium will adapt to steady states at which they dissipate energy and produce entropy at the maximum possible rate. This issue focuses on the latest development of applications of MEP to the biosphere–atmosphere system including aspects of the atmospheric circulation, the role of clouds, hydrology, vegetation effects, ecosystem exchange of energy and mass, biogeochemical interactions and the Gaia hypothesis. The examples shown in this special issue demonstrate the potential of MEP to contribute to improved understanding and modelling of the biosphere and the wider Earth system, and also explore limitations and constraints to the application of the MEP principle.”
One thing that stands out in this introduction is the fundamental relation it implicitly describes between the MEP principle and the maximum power principle: in the abstract, the MEP principle is described as stating that thermodynamic processes far from equilibrium will adapt to steady states at which they — dissipate energy and produce entropy — at the maximum possible rate; in the article, the authors write, “What the proposed MEP principle states is that if there are sufficient degrees of freedom, that is, sufficient choice among steady states that all meet the fundamental conservation laws, the system would be characterized by a maximization of entropy production. Roughly speaking, this MEP state would correspond to a state at which maximum physical power is generated, gradients are dissipated at the fastest possible rate and hence the associated entropy production is maximized” (Section 1, my emphasis).
Kleidon, A., Malhi, Y., Cox, P. M. “Maximum Entropy Production in Environmental and Ecological Systems”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences B 365/1545 (2010): 1297-1302.