Abstract. We established a Complex Systems Digital Campus(CS-DC) e-laboratory "Open Systems Exploration for Ecosystems Leveraging" in view of redesigning sustainable social-ecological systems related to food production ranging over food, health, community, economy, and environment. 6 projects have begun to collaborate in e-laboratory, namely Synecoculture, P2P Food Lab, Open Systems Data Analytics, The Bee Laboratory, Open Systems Simulation and One-Health Food Lab. As a transversal methodology we apply open systems science to deepen scientific understanding and for a continuous amelioration of the management. The projects involve scientists, engineers, artists, citizens and are open to collaboration inside and outside of the e-laboratory. This article summarizes foundational principles of these projects and reports initial steps in operation.

A novel farming method, namely synecological farming (synecoculture in short), based on theory and observation of synecology has been proposed as total optimization of productivity, product quality, environmental load and adaptation capacity to climate change. Synecoculture is designed on a variety of environmental responses within ecological optimum in high-density mixed polyculture where various edible species were intentionally introduced. The whole methodology can be considered as anthropogenic augmentation of ecosystem functioning that promotes dynamic biodiversity-productivity relationship prevalent in natural ecosystems.In this review we summarize the theoretical foundation to provide a systematic definition of synecoculture and clarify the relationship with existing farming methods. We also collate previously reported analyses of organic and mineral components in farm products, and outline their physiological characteristics and functions in response to culture environments.

Current food production systems require fundamental reformation in the face of population growth, climate change, and degradation of health and the environment. Over the course of human history, every agricultural system that has emerged has featured some sort of trade-off between productivity and environmental load. These trade-offs are causing the planet to exceed the boundaries of its biogeochemical cycles and are triggering an unprecedented extinction rate of wild species, thus pushing global ecosystems to the brink of collapse. In this era, characterized as it is by human activity that can profoundly influence climate and the environment (i.e., the Anthropocene epoch), tipping points can be either negative or positive. While a negative tipping point can produce sudden, rapid, and irreversible deterioration of social and environmental systems, a positive tipping point can produce improved health and sustainable social-ecological systems. The key to promoting positive global tipping points is a thorough understanding of human activity and life history on an evolutionary scale, along with the comprehensive integration of science and technology to produce intelligent policies and practices of food production, particularly in the developing world (See Supplementary Material 1 summary for policymakers). Simply increasing the efficiency and scale of monoculture-intensive agriculture is unlikely to drive social-ecological change in a positive and sustainable direction. A new solution to the health-diet-environment trilemma must be developed to achieve a net positive impact on biodiversity through the anthropogenic augmentation of ecosystems based on the ecological foundation of genetic, metabolic, and ecosystem health. This paper discusses the fundamental requirements for sustainable food production on the molecular, physiological, and ecological scales, including evolutionary and geological insights, in an attempt to identify the global conditions needed for the primary food production to ensure we survive this century. Particular emphasis is placed on how to make extensive use of this planet’s genetic resources without irretrievably losing them.

Abstract:We consider the graph representation of the stochastic model with n binary variables, and develop an information theoretical framework to measure the degree of statistical association existing between subsystems as well as the ones represented by each edge of the graph representation. Besides, we consider the novel measures of complexity with respect to the system decompositionability, by introducing the geometric product of Kullback-Leibler (KL-) divergence. The novel complexity measures satisfy the boundary condition of vanishing at the limit of completely random and ordered state, and also with the existence of independent subsystem of any size. Such complexity measures based on the geometric means are relevant to the heterogeneity of dependencies between subsystems, and the amount of information propagation shared entirely in the system.

Diets are key factors that link environmental and human health. Global degradation of ecosystems and health state are firmly related to diet transition and production system. We propose a distinction of in cultura and in natura diet by the culture condition and consequent environmental load it imposes, which leads to the definition of in natura diet as a possible alternative for sustainable diet. By considering food components as markers linking health and environment, we investigate statistically invariant features that characterize the difference between in cultura/natura diets on 2 independent databases, INFOODS food composition database and Synecoculture products. Plural distinctive features between in cultura/natura diets were discovered in numerically sampled intake distribution. Taking the food diversity limit, in natura diet tended to be more consistent in relation to larger population with major components and minerals, and a significant difference with in cultura diet was encrypted in variance component. Possible interpretation of the results may relate recent health burden to historical transition from in natura to in cultura diet.