title: Effect of epidemic spreading on species coexistence in spatial rock-paper-scissors games.
abstract: A fundamental question in nonlinear science and evolutionary biology is how epidemic spreading may affect coexistence. We address this question in the framework of mobile species under cyclic competitions by investigating the roles of both intra- and interspecies spreading. A surprising finding is that intraspecies infection can strongly promote coexistence while interspecies spreading cannot. These results are quantified and a theoretical paradigm based on nonlinear partial differential equations is derived to explain the numerical results.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Wen-Xu
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ying-Cheng
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Celso
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grebogi
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D017753:Ecosystem; D008954:Models, Biological; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena