  Several authors have hypothesized that ecological systems are subject to
thermodynamic optimization, which, if proven correct, could represent a long
sought general principle of organization in ecology. Although there have been
recent advances, this still remains as an unresolved topic, and ecologists lack
a general method to test thermodynamic optimization hypotheses in specific
systems. Here we present a general, novel approach that allows generating a
null model for testing thermodynamic optimization on ecological systems. We
first describe the general methodology, which is based in the analysis of a
parametrized mathematical model of the system and the explicit consideration of
constraints. Next we present an application example to an animal population
using a general age-structured population model and physiological parameters
from the literature. We finalize discussing the relevance of this work in the
context of the current state of ecology, and implications for the further
development of a thermodynamic ecological theory.
