How bad is to be slow-reacting ? On the effect of the delay in response to a changing environment on a population's survival

Ioana Bena; Michel Droz; Janusz Szwabinski; Andrzej Pekalski

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arXiv · 0801.2708

How bad is to be slow-reacting ? On the effect of the delay in response to a changing environment on a population's survival

Ioana Bena·Michel Droz·Janusz Szwabinski·Andrzej Pekalski

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Abstract

We consider a simple-model population, whose individuals react with a certain delay to temporal variations of their habitat. We investigate the impact of such a delayed-answer on the survival chances of the population, both in a periodically changing environment, and in the case of an abrupt change of it. It is found that for population with low degree of mutation-induced variability, being "slow-reacting" decreases the extinction risk face to environmental changes. On the contrary, for populations with high mutation amplitude, the delayed reaction reduces the survival chances.

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Ioana Bena, Michel Droz, Janusz Szwabinski, Andrzej Pekalski. 2008-01-17. How bad is to be slow-reacting ? On the effect of the delay in response to a changing environment on a population's survival. https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.2708

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