Life in our ever-shifting world relies heavily on information processing. This is true across scales of life, from the biomolecular networks to populations of organisms using cues from their surroundings to survive and thrive. By blending ecological theory and information science, I’m working with scientists like Mary O’Connor to uncover how information affects the survival of different species.
Information processing is increasingly recognized as a fundamental component of life in variable environments, including the evolved use of environmental cues, biomolecular networks, and social learning. Greater bodies of literature on information in other disciplines ranging from statistical mechanics and complexity theory in physics, to neural networks in biology, remain greatly underutilized in Ecology and their potential application to ecological problems is virtually unlimited. To bridge this gap, I am extending the ‘fitness value of information’ (FVOI) which synthesizes theory from ecology and information theory to create a mathematical framework to understand how important information processing is to the persistence of species’ populations. FVOI is a breakthrough approach that links information processing and ecological outcomes in a changing environment, and addresses longstanding questions about how information can mediate species interactions and environmental change impacts.
It remains an open question even in theory, How do species interactions mediate the fitness value of information? Working with collaborator Mary O’Connor, I have provided the first theoretical evidence that information can enhance the persistence of competing species, creating the potential for an “information niche.” However, virtually nothing is known about how robust this mechanism is to different assumptions and conditions.
Publications:
- Usinowicz, J. M.I. O’Connor. 2023. The fitness value of information in a variable world. Ecology Letters.