Stochastic effects on biodiversity in cyclic coevolutionary dynamics

Tobias Reichenbach; Mauro Mobilia; Erwin Frey

doi:10.4064/bc80-0-17

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Stochastic effects on biodiversity in cyclic coevolutionary dynamics

Tobias Reichenbach·Mauro Mobilia·Erwin Frey

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Abstract

Finite-size fluctuations arising in the dynamics of competing populations may have dramatic influence on their fate. As an example, in this article, we investigate a model of three species which dominate each other in a cyclic manner. Although the deterministic approach predicts (neutrally) stable coexistence of all species, for any finite population size, the intrinsic stochasticity unavoidably causes the eventual extinction of two of them.

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Tobias Reichenbach, Mauro Mobilia, Erwin Frey. 2006-10-05. Stochastic effects on biodiversity in cyclic coevolutionary dynamics. https://doi.org/10.4064/bc80-0-17

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