Coevolution of Slow-fast Populations: Evolutionary Sliding, Evolutionary Pseudo-equilibria, and Complex Red Queen Dynamics

Dercole, F., Ferriere, R., Gragnani, A., & Rinaldi, S. (2006). Coevolution of Slow-fast Populations: Evolutionary Sliding, Evolutionary Pseudo-equilibria, and Complex Red Queen Dynamics. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-06-006

Preview

Text IR-06-006.pdf Download (632kB) | Preview

Abstract

We study the interplay of ecological and evolutionary dynamics in communities composed of populations with contrasting timescales. In such communities, genetic variations of individual traits can cause population transitions between stationary and cyclic ecological regimes, hence abrupt variations in fitness. Such abrupt variations raise ridges in the adaptive landscape where the populations are poised between equilibrium and cyclic coexistence and along which evolutionary trajectories can remain sliding for long times or halt at special points called evolutionary pseudo-equilibria. These novel phenomena should be generic to all systems in which ecological interactions cause fitness to vary discontinuously. They are demonstrated by the analysis of a predator-prey community, with one adaptive trait for each population. The eco-evolutionary dynamics of the system show a number of other distinctive features, including evolutionary extinction and two forms of Red Queen dynamics. One of them is characterised by intermittent bouts of cyclic oscillations of the two populations.

Actions (login required)

View Item