Evolution and Carrying Capacity

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Doug Erwin presented some interesting ideas about evolution of life from an ecological perspective. What are the analogies to markets and other social systems? What allows for new entities to enter the market? What keeps old entities around? Are waves of entry/exit tied to disaster?

Thoughts?

• There are some general principles in ecological theory that describe the expected equilibrium species diversity based on the amount of available energy and the nature of non-selective destructive forces (Intermediate disturbance hypothesis). Do social sciences or economics have analogies to this type of principle? Is there comparable data available to see if the analogy can be applied?