Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 34: Statistical Physics of Biological Systems III (joint session BP/DY)
BP 34.10: Talk
Friday, March 22, 2024, 12:15–12:30, H 2032
Optimal memory with niche construction — •Edward Lee1, Jessica Flack2, and David Krakauer2 — 1Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna, Austria — 2Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA
Adaptation to changing environments is a universal feature of life and can involve the organism evolving or learning in response as well as actively modifying the environment to control selection pressures. The latter case couples the organism and environment together. Then, how quickly should the organism adapt in response to the changing environment? We formulate this question using a simple model of adaptive costs that considers timescales of memory and environment. We derive a general, sublinear scaling law for optimal memory as a function of environmental persistence, which encapsulates the trade-off between remembering vs. forgetting. The scaling holds for finite memory but a wide range of mediating factors. We then explore strategic game dynamics, uncovering a ratcheting mechanism that promotes reducing environmental volatility when niche constructors can monopolize benefits; conversely, niche destructors can dominate by degrading a shared environment. Finally, we compare the results with metabolic costs to predict that adaptive costs matter more for smaller organisms. Taken together, we predict stabilizing niche construction will evolve when environments are volatile and niches are separable, possibly enriching the behavioral repertoire of social organisms.
Keywords: niche construction; memory; adaptation; stigmergy; scaling