How directional mobility affects biodiversity in rock-paper-scissors models

TL;DR

This paper investigates how directional mobility influences biodiversity in rock-paper-scissors models, revealing that such movement can decrease the likelihood of species coexistence by simulating sensory-driven movement behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel directional mobility rule into rock-paper-scissors models, exploring its impact on species coexistence and biodiversity.

Findings

Directional mobility reduces coexistence probability.

Sensory-driven movement influences biodiversity dynamics.

The model simulates eye or nose-like directional sensing.

Abstract

This work deals with a system of three distinct species that changes in time under the presence of mobility, selection, and reproduction, as in the popular rock-paper-scissors game. The novelty of the current study is the modification of the mobility rule to the case of directional mobility, in which the species move following the direction associated to a larger (averaged) number density of selection targets in the surrounding neighborhood. Directional mobility can be used to simulate eyes that see or a nose that smells, and we show how it may contribute to reduce the probability of coexistence.