Characterization of Multispecies Living Ecosystems With Cellular Automata

A multispecies artificial ecosystem is formulated using cellular automata with species interactions and food chain hierarchy. The constructed finite state automaton can simulate the complexity and self-organized characteristics of the evolving multispecies living ecosystems. Numerical experiments show that a small perturbation or extinction event may affect many other species in the ecosystem in an avalanche manner. Both the avalanches and the extinction arising from these changes follow a power law, reflecting that the multispecies living ecosytems have the characteristics of self-organized criticality.