Mutualism Promotes Diversity and Stability in a Simple Artificial Ecosystem

  • Authors:

  • Elizaveta Pachepsky;Tim Taylor;Stephen Jones

  • Affiliations:

  • SIMBIOS, University of Abertay Dundee, Bell Street, Dundee DD1 1HG, United Kingdom;IC CAVE, University of Abertay Dundee, Current address : Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour, University of Edinburgh, 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2QL, United Kingdom;387 Riley Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010, Australia

  • Venue:
  • Artificial Life
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

This work investigates the effect of ecological interactions between organisms on the evolutionary dynamics of a community. A spatially explicit, individual-based model is presented, in which organisms compete for space and resources. We investigated how introducing the potential for mutualistic relationships (where the presence of one type of organism stimulates the growth of another type, and vice versa) affected the evolutionary dynamics of the system. Without this potential, one or a small number of individual types of organisms dominated the simulated community from the onset. When mutualistic relationships were allowed, many persisting types arose, with new types appearing continually. Furthermore, we investigated how the stability of the community differed when mutualistic relationships were allowed and disallowed. Our results suggest that the existence of mutualistic relationships improved community stability.