English

A Simple Model of Evolution with Variable System Size

Biological Physics 2016-09-08 v2 adap-org Disordered Systems and Neural Networks Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability q-bio

Abstract

A simple model of biological extinction with variable system size is presented that exhibits a power-law distribution of extinction event sizes. The model is a generalization of a model recently introduced by Newman (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B265, 1605 (1996). Both analytical and numerical analysis show that the exponent of the power-law distribution depends only marginally on the growth rate gg at which new species enter the system and is equal to the one of the original model in the limit gg\to\infty. A critical growth rate gcg_c can be found below which the system dies out. Under these model assumptions stable ecosystems can only exist if the regrowth of species is sufficiently fast.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/9705008,
  title  = {A Simple Model of Evolution with Variable System Size},
  author = {C. Wilke and T. Martinetz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/9705008},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

5 pages, RevTeX, with 5 figures, revised version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E