Individual-based predator-prey model for biological coevolution: fluctuations, stability, and community structure.
We study an individual-based predator-prey model of biological coevolution, using linear stability analysis and large-scale kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The model exhibits approximate 1/f noise in diversity and population-size fluctuations, and it generates a sequence of quasisteady communities in the form of simple food webs. These communities are quite resilient toward the loss of one or a few species, which is reflected in different power-law exponents for the durations of communities and the lifetimes of species. The exponent for the former is near -1 , while the latter is close to -2 . Statistical characteristics of the evolving communities, including degree (predator and prey) distributions and proportions of basal, intermediate, and top species, compare reasonably with data for real food webs.
School of Computational Science, Center for Materials Research and Technology, and Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4120, USA. rikvold@scs.fsu.edu
Per Arne
PA
Rikvold
Volkan
V
Sevim
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D011156:Population Density; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011158:Population Growth; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*