Diversity under variability and extreme variability of environments

TL;DR

This paper explores how extreme environmental variability influences individual adaptability and population diversity, revealing phase transitions and promoting diversity through co-evolution of actions and memory size.

Contribution

It introduces a model where individuals adapt via perceptrons with evolving memory, showing how environmental fluctuations induce phase transitions and increase diversity.

Findings

Environmental fluctuations cause phase transitions in cooperation and diversity.

Extreme variability alters critical exponents in the system.

Environmental variability promotes greater population diversity.

Abstract

We conducted an investigation of the effect that extreme variability of the individual's environment has in the individual's adaptability and, in general, in the co-evolution of a population. First we assume that the individuals are a kind of perceptrons with a given memory size that adapt to their environment; second we consider co-evolution not only of the individual actions but also of the memory size, depending on the individual's fitness; and third we assume strong variability of the environment. We show that changes in the intensity of the environmental fluctuations introduce a phase transition in the frequency of cooperators and the diversity of the population. We also find out that extreme variability of the environment induces changes in the critical exponents and that this variability can promote more diversity in the population.