If you are interested in this, it is definitely worth reading the second half of "Into the Cool" by Sagan and Schneider. The book is mostly about thermodynamics

If you are interested in this, it is definitely worth reading the second half of "Into the Cool" by Sagan and Schneider. The book is mostly about thermodynamics, but the second half of it applies the study of thermodynamic complexity (ala Prigogine etc.) to ecosystems. It gave me a different view of how the flow of energy through ecosystems results in the kind of ecological complexity in e.g. a rainforest. The effects of stressing an ecosystem and how removing energy or energy-gathering opportunities can result in a regression from a complex ecology to a simpler one (forest to gressland) are also explored.