Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 21: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems (joint session DY/ BP/CPP)
DY 21.3: Talk
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 14:30–14:45, ZEU 118
The Evolution of Network Structure and Species Diversity in an Evolutionary Meta-Foodweb Model — •Tobias Rogge1, Korinna T. Allhoff2, and Barbara Drossel1 — 1Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany — 2Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Evolutionary foodweb models provide important insights into the stability and the functioning of ecosystems on long time scales, since the network structure is a highly nontrivial outcome of the ongoing processes of species addition and species deletion. Here, we present and investigate an evolutionary food web model that includes no population dynamics but generates nevertheless a large variety of complex, multi-trophic networks. In this model, species are characterized by a few traits that are based on their body mass and that determine the connections to other species in the network. The system evolves due to the addition of new species, which are modifications of existing species. Species survival depends on the predators, the prey, and the competitors of the new species. We investigate this model on one habitat as well as on many habitats coupled by migration. Depending on the parameters, the long-term dynamics of the network can show layered structures, highly dynamical configurations with frequent extinctions, or frozen configurations that allow no mutant to survive. We identify the conditions under which the different types of dynamical and structural patterns emerge. Furthermore, we evaluate local and regional species diversities in the spatial model as well as species lifetime distributions, and we discuss them in an ecological context.