Species Formation in Simple Ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cellular automaton model of a simple ecosystem that incorporates phenotypic and genotypic levels, demonstrating how competition can lead to species formation without mutation rate dependence.

Contribution

It presents a novel microscopic CA-based model capturing complex ecosystem behaviors, including speciation driven by competition, with analytical approximations.

Findings

Species formation occurs independently of mutation rate.

The model exhibits mutational meltdown transition but not error threshold.

Analytical approximation aligns with simulation results.

Abstract

In this paper we consider a microscopic model of a simple ecosystem. The basic ingredients of this model are individuals, and both the phenotypic and genotypic levels are taken in account. The model is based on a long range cellular automaton (CA); introducing simple interactions between the individuals, we get some of the complex collective behaviors observed in a real ecosystem. Since our fitness function is smooth, the model does not exhibit the error threshold transition; on the other hand the size of total population is not kept constant, and the mutational meltdown transition is present. We study the effects of competition between genetically similar individuals and how it can lead to species formation. This speciation transition does not depend on the mutation rate. We present also an analytical approximation of the model.