PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lev V. Kalmykov
AU  - Vyacheslav L. Kalmykov
TI  - Coexistence of complete competitors with fitness inequality
AID  - 10.1101/160986
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 160986
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/09/160986.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/07/09/160986.full
AB  - Survival of the fittest is the famous phrase of Herbert Spencer. Later it was transformed in the competitive exclusion principle – the main principle of theoretical ecology. However, there was a long standing contradiction between formulations of this principle and natural species richness, which is known as the biodiversity paradox. Here we investigate a role of fitness differences in coexistence of two completely competing species using individual-based cellular automata. Our method implements automatic logical inference from the first principles of ecosystem theory. We have found a new mechanism how two aggressively propagating complete competitors can stably coexist in one limited, stable and homogeneous habitat, when one species has some advantage in fitness over the other and all other characteristics are equal, in particular any trade-offs and cooperations are absent. This competitive coexistence occurred regardless of the initial position of individuals in the habitat. When colonization of free habitat started from a single individual of each species, then the complete competitors coexisted up to 31% of their difference in fitness. And when on initial stage half of the territory was probabilistically occupied, then the complete competitors coexisted up to 22% of their difference in fitness. These results additionally support our reformulation of the competitive exclusion principle, which permitted to resolve the biodiversity paradox. The implemented approach overcomes the Garrett Hardin’s challenge – The “truth” of the principle is and can be established only by theory, not being subject to proof or disproof by facts, as ordinarily understood.