Weighted fitness theory: an approach to symbiotic communities

Falgueras-Cano, Javier; Carretero, José Miguel; Moya, Andrés

doi:10.1111/1758-2229.12515

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…We conclude that we have a case of multilevel selection in which selective group pressure is higher than individual pressure. Therefore, the adaptive advantages for the group prosper in detriment to the individual [ 113 ] because any mutant with higher fitness cannot replace the original population, in the end, it would become extinct with the general population of predators, and a group of individuals with less fitness could replace another group with higher individual fitness.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggregated Distribution as an Explanation for the Paradox of Plankton and Collective Animal Behavior

Falgueras-Cano

Moya

2022

Biology

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This work analyzes the evolutionary consequences of different aggregation levels of species distribution with an Evolutionary Cellular Automaton (ECA). We have found that in habitats with the same carrying capacity, aggregated distributions preserve smaller populations than do uniform distributions, i.e., they are less efficient. Nonetheless, we have also found that aggregated distributions, among other factors, can help the evolutionary stability of some biological interactions, such as predator–prey interactions, despite their granting less individual fitness. Besides, the competitive exclusion principle does not usually stand in populations with aggregated distribution. We have applied ECA to study the effects of aggregated distribution in two notorious cases: in the so-called paradox of the plankton and in gregarious animals. In doing so, we intend to ratify long-established ecological knowledge explaining these phenomena from a new perspective. In the first case, due to aggregate distribution, large aggregations of digital organisms mimicking very abundant planktonic species, leave large patches or oceanic areas free for other less competitive organisms, which mimic rare species, to prosper. In this case, we can see how effects, such as ecological drift and the small portion, act simultaneously. In the second case of aggregation, the aggregate distribution of gregarious animals could be explained under specialized predator–prey interactions and interdemic competition. Thus, digital organisms that imitate predators reduce the competitive capacity of their prey, destabilizing their competitiveness against other species. The specialized predator also goes extinct if the prey goes extinct by natural selection. Predators that have an aggregate distribution compensate the prey and thus avoid exclusion. This way there are more predator-free patches in which the prey can prosper. However, by granting greater colonization capacity to its prey, the predator loses competitiveness. Therefore, it is a multilevel selection event in which group adaptation grows to the detriment of the predator as an individual.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aggregated Distribution as an Explanation for the Paradox of Plankton and Collective Animal Behavior

Falgueras-Cano

Moya

2022

Biology

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“…ECA compares the different predictions arising from the various theories related to the emergence of evolutionary altruism [ 30 ], to hierarchical speciation [ 31 ], and particularly to our Weighted Fitness Theory [ 32 ]. ECA is easily scalable from trivial and simplistic systems to complex associations between several species, as in the case of multilevel selection [ 33 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of the Coevolution of Digital Organisms with an Evolutionary Cellular Automaton

Falgueras-Cano

Moya

2021

Biology

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This paper presents an Evolutionary Cellular Automaton (ECA) that simulates the evolutionary dynamics of biological interactions by manipulating strategies of dispersion and associations between digital organisms. The parameterization of the different types of interaction and distribution strategies using configuration files generates easily interpretable results. In that respect, ECA is an effective instrument for measuring the effects of relative adaptive advantages and a good resource for studying natural selection. Although ECA works effectively in obtaining the expected results from most well-known biological interactions, some unexpected effects were observed. For example, organisms uniformly distributed in fragmented habitats do not favor eusociality, and mutualism evolved from parasitism simply by varying phenotypic flexibility. Finally, we have verified that natural selection represents a cost for the emergence of sex by destabilizing the stable evolutionary strategy of the 1:1 sex ratio after generating randomly different distributions in each generation.

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Weighted fitness theory: an approach to symbiotic communities

Cited by 2 publications

References 8 publications

Aggregated Distribution as an Explanation for the Paradox of Plankton and Collective Animal Behavior

Aggregated Distribution as an Explanation for the Paradox of Plankton and Collective Animal Behavior

A Study of the Coevolution of Digital Organisms with an Evolutionary Cellular Automaton

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