RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Enabling stable coexistence by modifying the environment
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 676890
DO 10.1101/676890
A1 Alejandro Pastor
A1 Juan Carlos Nuño
A1 José Olarrea
A1 Javier de Vicente
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/06/19/676890.abstract
AB In this work coexistence is studied using a model based on two classical population models: the quasispecies of Eigen [1] and the daisyworld presented by Watson and Lovelock [2]. It is assumed that species are able to modify the environment. We show that this ability enables the coexistence between, at most, two species in equilibrium. Given an initial population, the problem arises as to determine which of the many equilibrium populations, i.e. extinction, only one species or coexistence of two species, will be reached as a function of the species characteristics, specifically their capacity to modify the environment and the optimal growth rate. These results are obtained under general assumptions, which broadens its applicability to other fields as evolutionary biology and social sciences.