Inter-Scalar Networks: 1 Meta-Ecosystems: Networks of Networks

Ecosystems rarely exist in isolation. Rivers connect forests, winds carry seeds, pollinators traverse biomes, and nutrient cycles cross watershed boundaries.

At this scale, we encounter meta-ecosystems: networks of ecosystems interacting through flows of energy, matter, and information.

From a relational perspective, meta-ecosystems are polyphonic fields of readiness, where coherence emerges not from a central director but from the co-individuation of multiple nested perspectival loci.

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1. Distributed Ability Across Ecosystems

Each ecosystem contributes a set of potentialities:

• Forests stabilise soil and provide niches for multiple species.

• Wetlands modulate hydrology and nutrient flux.

• Grasslands create fire and grazing gradients.

In a meta-ecosystem, these abilities interact, producing emergent potentials:

• Migrating species link distant food webs.

• Hydrological flows transmit constraints downstream.

• Pollination networks integrate spatially separated plant populations.

Ability is distributed and relational, spanning multiple ecosystems, forming a higher-order aperture of possibility.

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2. Inclination: Local Biases Modulating Interactions

Local biases in each ecosystem shape how potentials are expressed:

• Seasonal floods may tilt inclination toward colonisation or dormancy.

• Predator presence alters prey behaviour across connected landscapes.

• Nutrient gradients bias growth patterns in downstream ecosystems.

Inclinations are plastic and context-sensitive, modulated not only by internal conditions but by interactions across the meta-ecosystem.

Each ecosystem is a perspectival locus whose local readiness is shaped by neighbours.

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3. Partial Individuation Across Scales

Meta-ecosystem individuation is graded:

• Individual ecosystems retain local identity and internal coherence.

• Yet their potentials are enmeshed, creating emergent patterns impossible to attribute to any single system.

• Disturbances in one ecosystem propagate, reconfiguring inclinations and abilities across the network.

This mirrors the relational principle seen in colonies and ecosystems: identity is perspectival, coherence is distributed, and individuation is never absolute.

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4. Emergent Coherence and Resilience

Interactions across meta-ecosystems generate:

• Nested feedback loops stabilising multiple scales of the readiness field.

• Cross-system redundancy, where one ecosystem can partially compensate for fluctuations in another.

• Resilience as an emergent property: the field maintains coherence despite local perturbations.

Meta-ecosystems are adaptive ensembles, their structure arising from the dynamic interplay of distributed ability, inclination, and perspectival alignment.

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5. Conceptual Payoffs

Applying the readiness lens to meta-ecosystems allows us to:

• Reframe migration, dispersal, and connectivity as gradients of co-individuation, not just flows of matter or energy.

• Model emergent patterns without assuming central control or top-down organisation.

• Extend the relational ontology to inter-scalar ecological fields, preparing the ground for planetary socio-ecological networks.

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Meta-ecosystems illustrate a crucial point: scale does not erase relational principles.

The same triad of ability → inclination → individuation that structures colonies, single ecosystems, and organisms applies here, producing nested, multi-perspectival fields of readiness.