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June 1 - 3 , 1978 - University of Hawaii at Manoa

June 1 - 3 , 1978 - University of Hawaii at Manoa

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can be expected to provide will be considered (Weidlich 1971;<br />

Callen & Shapero 1974).<br />

Problems <strong>of</strong> the sort considered here concern the behavior <strong>of</strong><br />

"incompletely-specified systems." Th<strong>at</strong> is, they deal with sys-<br />

tems (e.g., a forest) for which there is either insufficient d<strong>at</strong>a<br />

to predict the behavior <strong>of</strong> each individual or incomplete knowl-<br />

edge <strong>of</strong> the laws which govern individual and system behavior, or<br />

both. In fact, these systems are intrinsically incompletely<br />

specified since we are not really interested in predicting the<br />

detailed behavior <strong>of</strong> each individual and since the d<strong>at</strong>a necessary<br />

for th<strong>at</strong> task is impossibly extensive. Incompletely specified<br />

systems are probabilistic systems by their n<strong>at</strong>ure. The sub-<br />

discipline <strong>of</strong> st<strong>at</strong>istical mechanics in physics is directed <strong>at</strong><br />

such problems in Hamiltopian systems (Hobson 19711, and both<br />

models and methods originally developed in physics may be appli-<br />

cable to problems <strong>of</strong> incompletely-specified systems arising in<br />

other contexts.<br />

In particular, while the causes <strong>of</strong> interdependent behavior<br />

among <strong>at</strong>omic spins in magnets and interdependent behavior among<br />

'ohi'a trees in a dying forest are obviously r<strong>at</strong>her different,<br />

the st<strong>at</strong>istical behavior <strong>of</strong> these two systems does show<br />

interesting similarities.<br />

The most serious objection to the approach taken in this<br />

paper is th<strong>at</strong> models from physics, like the one discussed below,<br />

are such an oversimplific<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> reality th<strong>at</strong> their results can-<br />

not be relied upon. While this is always a danger, such diffi-<br />

culties can be minimized by focusing <strong>at</strong>tention on fe<strong>at</strong>ures which<br />

are insensitive to specific details <strong>of</strong> the model. It is argued<br />

th<strong>at</strong> the collapse behavior in the present study is such a fea-<br />

ture. In addition, if detailed simul<strong>at</strong>ion is desired, it is<br />

<strong>of</strong>ten possible to add specifics to such models and successively<br />

improve the simul<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> reality.<br />

DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL<br />

Imagine a forest <strong>of</strong> - N uniform-age, essentially identical<br />

trees. Let each tree be in one <strong>of</strong> two st<strong>at</strong>es: healthy or<br />

declining. (The effect <strong>of</strong> modifying this model to include individual<br />

differences in trees and continuous vari<strong>at</strong>ion in vigor<br />

w i l l be discussed below.) This simple, very general model shows<br />

the important fe<strong>at</strong>ures <strong>of</strong> transition from healthy to declining in<br />

a manner which is qualit<strong>at</strong>ively the<br />

model.<br />

same as a more realistic<br />

The forest <strong>of</strong> identical trees in two possible st<strong>at</strong>es can be<br />

modelled as a spin-+ classical magnet in two dimensions--the<br />

Ising model in st<strong>at</strong>istical mechanics (Weidlich 1971; Callen &<br />

Shapero 1974). We use this analogy to analyze the behavior <strong>of</strong><br />

our model forest. There are three important classes <strong>of</strong> variables<br />

in this problem:

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