Dynamic analysis of trophic networks modeled with Petri nets

Abstract

In an Ecological Community there are a lot of interactions between living components and non-living components in their environment. These components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows to form networks of interactions representing ecosystems. Trophic networks are a branch of ecology dealing with the study of feeding relationships within ecosystems and represents them as networks of interacting components. By analyzing trophic networks one can extract information that ecologists can use to detect main impacts such as the effects of pollution, of physical disturbance, of resources exploitation, and it can be also used to identify the key species. Trophic networks can be naturally modeled as Petri nets and in this thesis we explore the possibility to introduce in the modeling process some dynamic aspects, with the aim of exploiting them for analysis and simulation purposes.